Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the
prime minister of Cuba
The Prime Minister of Cuba ( es, Primer Ministro de Cuba), officially known as the President of the Council of Ministers ( es, Presidente del Consejo de Ministros de Cuba) between 1976 and 2019, is the head of government of Cuba and the chairma ...
from 1959 to 1976 and
president
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
from 1976 to 2008. Ideologically a
Marxist–Leninist
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialect ...
and Cuban
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...
, he also served as the
first secretary of the
Communist Party of Cuba
The Communist Party of Cuba ( es, Partido Comunista de Cuba, PCC) is the sole ruling party of Cuba. It was founded on 3 October 1965 as the successor to the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution, which was in turn made up of the 26 ...
from 1961 until 2011. Under his administration, Cuba became a
one-party
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government ...
communist state
A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Comi ...
; industry and business were
nationalized
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to p ...
, and
state socialist reforms were implemented throughout society.
Born in
Birán
Birán is a village in Holguín Province of Cuba, hamlet and ''consejo popular'' of Cueto, best known as the birthplace of Ramón, Fidel, and Raúl Castro. Their father owned a 23,000 acre (93 km²) plantation there.
History
Until the 197 ...
, the son of a wealthy Spanish farmer, Castro adopted
leftist and
anti-imperialist
Anti-imperialism in political science and international relations is a term used in a variety of contexts, usually by nationalist movements who want to secede from a larger polity (usually in the form of an empire, but also in a multi-ethnic so ...
ideas while studying law at the
University of Havana
The University of Havana or (UH, ''Universidad de La Habana'') is a university located in the Vedado district of Havana, the capital of the Republic of Cuba. Founded on January 5, 1728, the university is the oldest in Cuba, and one of the firs ...
. After participating in rebellions against right-wing governments in the
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...
and
Colombia, he planned the overthrow of Cuban President
Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (; ; born Rubén Zaldívar, January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a Cuban military officer and politician who served as the elected president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 and as its U.S.-backed military dictator ...
, launching a failed attack on the
Moncada Barracks
The Moncada Barracks was a military barracks in Santiago de Cuba, named after General Guillermo Moncada, a hero of the Cuban War of Independence. On 26 July 1953, the barracks was the site of an armed attack by a small group of revolutionaries ...
in 1953. After a year's imprisonment, Castro traveled to Mexico where he formed a revolutionary group, the
26th of July Movement, with his brother
Raúl Castro and
Ernesto "Che" Guevara
Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quoted ...
. Returning to Cuba, Castro took a key role in the
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in co ...
by leading the Movement in a
guerrilla war
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactics ...
against Batista's forces from the
Sierra Maestra
The Sierra Maestra is a mountain range that runs westward across the south of the old Oriente Province in southeast Cuba, rising abruptly from the coast. The range falls mainly within the Santiago de Cuba and in Granma Provinces. Some view it a ...
. After Batista's overthrow in 1959, Castro assumed military and political power as Cuba's prime minister. The United States came to oppose Castro's government and unsuccessfully attempted to
remove him by assassination,
economic embargo, and counter-revolution, including the
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion (, sometimes called ''Invasión de Playa Girón'' or ''Batalla de Playa Girón'' after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban exiles, covertly fin ...
of 1961. Countering these threats, Castro aligned with the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
and allowed the Soviets to place nuclear weapons in Cuba, resulting in the
Cuban Missile Crisis – a defining incident of the
Cold War – in 1962.
Adopting a Marxist–Leninist model of development, Castro converted Cuba into a one-party, socialist state under Communist Party rule, the first in the
Western Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the te ...
. Policies introducing central
economic planning and expanding
healthcare and
education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...
were accompanied by state control of the press and the suppression of internal dissent. Abroad, Castro supported anti-imperialist revolutionary groups, backing the establishment of
Marxist governments in
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
,
Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...
, and
Grenada, as well as sending troops to aid allies in the
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur (; he, יוֹם כִּפּוּר, , , ) is the holiest day in Judaism and Samaritanism. It occurs annually on the 10th of Tishrei, the first month of the Hebrew calendar. Primarily centered on atonement and repentance, the day' ...
,
Ogaden, and
Angolan Civil War
The Angolan Civil War ( pt, Guerra Civil Angolana) was a civil war in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war immediately began after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. The war was ...
. These actions, coupled with Castro's leadership of the
Non-Aligned Movement
The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum of 120 countries that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide.
The movement originated in the aftermath o ...
from 1979 to 1983 and
Cuba's medical internationalism
After the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Cuba established a program to send its medical personnel overseas, particularly to Latin America, Africa, and Oceania, and to bring medical students and patients to Cuba for training and treatment respectively. In 2 ...
, increased Cuba's profile on the world stage. Following the
Dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Castro led Cuba through the economic downturn of the "
Special Period
The Special Period ( es, Período especial, link=no), officially the Special Period in the Time of Peace (), was an extended period of economic crisis in Cuba that began in 1991 primarily due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and, by ext ...
", embracing environmentalist and
anti-globalization ideas. In the 2000s, Castro forged alliances in the Latin American "
pink tide
The pink tide ( es, marea rosa, pt, onda rosa, french: marée rose), or the turn to the left ( es, giro a la izquierda, link=no, pt, volta à esquerda, link=no, french: tournant à gauche, link=no), is a political wave and perception of a tur ...
" – namely with
Hugo Chávez's Venezuela – and formed the
Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas
''Alba'' ( , ) is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is also, in English language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scots united in the ninth century as the Kingdom of Alba, until it developed into the Kin ...
. In 2006, Castro
transferred his responsibilities to
Vice President
A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...
Raúl Castro, who was elected to the presidency by the
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...
in 2008.
The longest-serving non-royal head of state in the 20th and 21st centuries, Castro polarized opinion throughout the world. His supporters view him as a champion of socialism and anti-imperialism whose revolutionary government advanced economic and social justice while securing Cuba's independence from
U.S. hegemony. Critics call him a dictator whose administration oversaw
human rights abuses
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
,
the exodus of many Cubans, and the impoverishment of the country's economy.
Early life and career
Youth: 1926–1947
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born
out of wedlock
Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as ''b ...
at his father's farm on 13 August 1926. His father,
Ángel Castro y Argiz, a veteran of the
Spanish–American War
, partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence
, image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg
, image_size = 300px
, caption = (cloc ...
, was a migrant to
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
from
Galicia, in the northwest of
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
. He had become financially successful by growing sugarcane at Las Manacas farm in
Birán
Birán is a village in Holguín Province of Cuba, hamlet and ''consejo popular'' of Cueto, best known as the birthplace of Ramón, Fidel, and Raúl Castro. Their father owned a 23,000 acre (93 km²) plantation there.
History
Until the 197 ...
, then in
Oriente Province (now
Holguín Province
Holguín () is one of the provinces of Cuba, the third most populous after Havana and Santiago de Cuba. It lies in the southeast of the country. Its major cities include Holguín (the capital), Banes, Antilla, Mayarí, and Moa.
The province ...
). After the collapse of his first marriage he took his household servant, Lina Ruz González – of
Canarian
Canary Islanders, or Canarians ( es, canarios), are a Romance people and ethnic group. They reside on the Canary Islands, an autonomous community of Spain near the coast of northwest Africa, and descend from a mixture of European settlers and abo ...
ancestry – as his mistress and later second wife; together they had seven children, among them Fidel. At age six, Castro was sent to live with his teacher in
Santiago de Cuba
Santiago de Cuba is the second-largest city in Cuba and the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province. It lies in the southeastern area of the island, some southeast of the Cuban capital of Havana.
The municipality extends over , and contains ...
, before being
baptized into the Roman Catholic Church at the age of eight. Being baptized enabled Castro to attend the La Salle boarding school in Santiago, where he regularly misbehaved; he was next sent to the privately funded,
Jesuit-run Dolores School in Santiago.
![Fidelcastro colegio de belen 1943](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Fidelcastro_colegio_de_belen_1943._Havana_Cuba.jpg)
In 1945, Castro transferred to the Jesuit-run
El Colegio de Belén in
Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. . Although Castro took an interest in history, geography, and debate at Belén, he did not excel academically, instead devoting much of his time to playing sports.
In 1945, Castro began studying law at the
University of Havana
The University of Havana or (UH, ''Universidad de La Habana'') is a university located in the Vedado district of Havana, the capital of the Republic of Cuba. Founded on January 5, 1728, the university is the oldest in Cuba, and one of the firs ...
. Admitting he was "politically illiterate", Castro became embroiled in
student activism and the
violent ''gangsterismo'' culture within the university. After becoming passionate about
anti-imperialism and opposing
U.S. intervention in the Caribbean, he unsuccessfully campaigned for the presidency of the Federation of University Students on a platform of "honesty, decency and justice". Castro became critical of the corruption and violence of President
Ramón Grau
Ramón Grau San Martín (13 September 1881 in La Palma, Pinar del Río Province, Spanish Cuba – 28 July 1969 in Havana, Cuba) was a Cuban physician who served as President of Cuba from 1933 to 1934 and from 1944 to 1948. He was the last pres ...
's government, delivering a public speech on the subject in November 1946 that received coverage on the front page of several newspapers.
In 1947, Castro joined the Party of the Cuban People (or Orthodox Party; ''
Partido Ortodoxo
The Party of the Cuban People – Orthodox ( es, Partido del Pueblo Cubano – Ortodoxos, PPC-O), commonly shortened to the Orthodox Party ( es, Partido Ortodoxo), was a Cuban populist political party. It was founded in 1947 by Eduardo Chibás in ...
''), founded by veteran politician
Eduardo Chibás
Eduardo René Chibás Ribas (August 15, 1907 – August 16, 1951) was a Cuban politician who used radio to broadcast his political views to the public. He primarily denounced corruption and gangsterism rampant during the governments of Ramón Gra ...
. A charismatic figure, Chibás advocated social justice, honest government, and political freedom, while his party exposed corruption and demanded reform. Though Chibás came third in the
1948 general election, Castro remained committed to working on his behalf. Student violence escalated after Grau employed gang leaders as police officers, and Castro soon received a death threat urging him to leave the university. However, he refused to do so and began to carry a gun and surround himself with armed friends. In later years, anti-Castro dissidents accused him of committing gang-related assassinations at the time, but these accusations remain unproven. The American historian John Lewis Gaddis wrote that Castro "began his career as a revolutionary with no ideology at all: he was a student politician turned street fighter turned guerrilla, a voracious reader, an interminable speaker, and a pretty good baseball player. The only ideas that appear to have driven him were a lust for power, a willingness to use violent means to get it, and an unwillingness to share it once he had it. If he had followed any example, it was that of Napoleon, not Marx".
Rebellion and Marxism: 1947–1950
In June 1947, Castro learned of
a planned expedition to overthrow the right-wing government of
Rafael Trujillo, a U.S. ally, in the
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...
. Being President of the University Committee for Democracy in the Dominican Republic, Castro joined the expedition. The military force consisted of around 1,200 troops, mostly Cubans and exiled Dominicans, and they intended to sail from Cuba in July 1947. Grau's government stopped the invasion under U.S. pressure, although Castro and many of his comrades evaded arrest. Returning to Havana, Castro took a leading role in student protests against the killing of a high school pupil by government bodyguards. The protests, accompanied by a crackdown on those considered communists, led to violent clashes between activists and police in February 1948, in which Castro was badly beaten. At this point, his public speeches took on a distinctly leftist slant by condemning social and economic inequality in Cuba. In contrast, his former public criticisms had centered on condemning corruption and U.S. imperialism.
In April 1948, Castro traveled to
Bogotá, Colombia, leading a Cuban student group sponsored by President
Juan Perón's Argentine government. There, the assassination of popular leftist leader
Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Ayala led to widespread rioting and clashes between the governing
Conservatives
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
– backed by the army – and leftist
Liberals.
Castro joined the Liberal cause by stealing guns from a police station, but subsequent police investigations concluded that he had not been involved in any killings.
[; ; ; .] In April 1948, the Organization of American States was founded at a summit in Bogotá, leading to protests, which Castro joined.
Returning to Cuba, Castro became a prominent figure in protests against government attempts to raise bus fares. That year, he married
Mirta Díaz Balart, a student from a wealthy family, through whom he was exposed to the lifestyle of the Cuban elite. The relationship was a love match, disapproved of by both families, but Díaz Balart's father gave them tens of thousands of dollars, along with Batista, to spend on a three-month New York City honeymoon.
That same year, Grau decided not to stand for re-election, which was instead won by his ''
Partido Auténtico
The Cuban Revolutionary Party – Authentic ( es, Partido Revolucionario Cubano – Auténtico, PRC-A), commonly called the Authentic Party ( es, Partido Auténtico, PA), was a political party in Cuba most active between 1933 and 1952. Although th ...
''s new candidate,
Carlos Prío Socarrás
Carlos Manuel Prío Socarrás (July 14, 1903 – April 5, 1977) was a Cuban politician. He served as the President of Cuba from 1948 until he was deposed by a military coup led by Fulgencio Batista on March 10, 1952, three months before new ele ...
. Prío faced widespread protests when members of the MSR, now allied to the police force, assassinated Justo Fuentes, a socialist friend of Castro's. In response, Prío agreed to quell the gangs, but found them too powerful to control. Castro had moved further to the left, influenced by the
Marxist writings of
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
,
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels ( ,["Engels"](_blank)
'' Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
. He came to interpret Cuba's problems as an integral part of capitalist society, or the "dictatorship of the
bourgeoisie", rather than the failings of corrupt politicians, and adopted the Marxist view that meaningful political change could only be brought about by proletariat revolution. Visiting Havana's poorest neighborhoods, he became active in the student
anti-racist
Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate ...
campaign.
In September 1949, Mirta gave birth to a son, Fidelito, so the couple moved to a larger Havana flat. Castro continued to put himself at risk, staying active in the city's politics and joining the 30 September Movement, which contained within it both communists and members of the ''Partido Ortodoxo''. The group's purpose was to oppose the influence of the violent gangs within the university; despite his promises, Prío had failed to control the situation, instead offering many of their senior members jobs in government ministries. Castro volunteered to deliver a speech for the Movement on 13 November, exposing the government's secret deals with the gangs and identifying key members. Attracting the attention of the national press, the speech angered the gangs and Castro fled into hiding, first in the countryside and then in the U.S. Returning to Havana several weeks later, Castro laid low and focused on his university studies, graduating as a Doctor of Law in September 1950.
Career in law and politics: 1950–1952
![BatistaDC1938](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/BatistaDC1938.jpg)
Castro co-founded a legal partnership that primarily catered to poor Cubans, although it proved a financial failure. Caring little for money or material goods, Castro failed to pay his bills; his furniture was repossessed and electricity cut off, distressing his wife. He took part in a high school protest in
Cienfuegos in November 1950, fighting with police to protest the Education Ministry's ban on student associations; he was arrested and charged for violent conduct, but the magistrate dismissed the charges.
[.] His hopes for Cuba still centered on Chibás and the ''Partido Ortodoxo'', and he was present at Chibás' politically motivated suicide in 1951. Seeing himself as Chibás' heir, Castro wanted to run for Congress in the June 1952 elections, though senior ''Ortodoxo'' members feared his radical reputation and refused to nominate him. He was instead nominated as a candidate for the House of Representatives by party members in Havana's poorest districts, and began campaigning. The ''Ortodoxo'' had considerable support and was predicted to do well in the election.
During his campaign, Castro met with General
Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (; ; born Rubén Zaldívar, January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a Cuban military officer and politician who served as the elected president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 and as its U.S.-backed military dictator ...
, the former president who had returned to politics with the
Unitary Action Party
The Progressive Action Party ( es, Partido de Acción Progresista, PAP) was a Cuban political party led by Fulgencio Batista. The party was founded on 1 April 1949, in the aftermath of the 1948 general elections, under the name of Unitary Action ...
. Batista offered him a place in his administration if he was successful; although both opposed Prío's administration, their meeting never got beyond polite generalities. On 10 March 1952, Batista seized power in a military coup, with Prío fleeing to Mexico. Declaring himself president, Batista cancelled the planned presidential elections, describing his new system as "disciplined democracy"; Castro was deprived of being elected in his run for office by Batista's move, and like many others, considered it a one-man dictatorship. Batista moved to the right, solidifying ties with both the wealthy elite and the United States, severing diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, suppressing trade unions and persecuting Cuban socialist groups. Intent on opposing Batista, Castro brought several legal cases against the government, but these came to nothing, and Castro began thinking of alternate ways to oust the regime.
Cuban Revolution
The Movement and the Moncada Barracks attack: 1952–1953
Castro formed a group called "The Movement" which operated along a
clandestine cell system, publishing underground newspaper ''El Acusador'' (''The Accuser''), while arming and training anti-Batista recruits. From July 1952 they went on a recruitment drive, gaining around 1,200 members in a year, the majority from Havana's poorer districts. Although a
revolutionary socialist
Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine, and tradition within socialism that stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary to bring about structural changes in society. More specifically, it is the view that revoluti ...
, Castro avoided an alliance with the communist
Popular Socialist Party (PSP), fearing it would frighten away political moderates, but kept in contact with PSP members like his brother Raúl. Castro stockpiled weapons for a planned attack on the
Moncada Barracks
The Moncada Barracks was a military barracks in Santiago de Cuba, named after General Guillermo Moncada, a hero of the Cuban War of Independence. On 26 July 1953, the barracks was the site of an armed attack by a small group of revolutionaries ...
, a military garrison outside
Santiago de Cuba
Santiago de Cuba is the second-largest city in Cuba and the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province. It lies in the southeastern area of the island, some southeast of the Cuban capital of Havana.
The municipality extends over , and contains ...
,
Oriente. Castro's militants intended to dress in army uniforms and arrive at the base on 25 July, seizing control and raiding the armory before reinforcements arrived. Supplied with new weaponry, Castro intended to spark a revolution among Oriente's impoverished cane cutters and promote further uprisings. Castro's plan emulated those of the 19th-century Cuban independence fighters who had raided Spanish barracks; Castro saw himself as the heir to independence leader
José Martí
José Julián Martí Pérez (; January 28, 1853 – May 19, 1895) was a Cuban nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher, who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in the libera ...
.
![Fidel Castro under arrest after the Moncada attack](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Fidel_Castro_under_arrest_after_the_Moncada_attack.jpg)
Castro gathered 165 revolutionaries for the mission, ordering his troops not to cause bloodshed unless they met armed resistance. The attack took place on 26 July 1953, but ran into trouble; 3 of the 16 cars that had set out from Santiago failed to get there. Reaching the barracks, the alarm was raised, with most of the rebels pinned down by machine gun fire. Four were killed before Castro ordered a retreat. The rebels suffered 6 fatalities and 15 other casualties, whilst the army suffered 19 dead and 27 wounded. Meanwhile, some rebels took over a civilian hospital; subsequently stormed by government soldiers, the rebels were rounded up, tortured and 22 were executed without trial. Accompanied by 19 comrades, Castro set out for Gran Piedra in the rugged
Sierra Maestra
The Sierra Maestra is a mountain range that runs westward across the south of the old Oriente Province in southeast Cuba, rising abruptly from the coast. The range falls mainly within the Santiago de Cuba and in Granma Provinces. Some view it a ...
mountains several kilometres to the north, where they could establish a guerrilla base. Responding to the attack, Batista's government proclaimed
martial law
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory.
Use
Marti ...
, ordering a violent crackdown on dissent, and imposing strict media censorship.
The government broadcast misinformation about the event, claiming that the rebels were communists who had killed hospital patients, although news and photographs of the army's use of torture and
summary executions in Oriente soon spread, causing widespread public and some governmental disapproval.
[; ; .]
Over the following days, the rebels were rounded up; some were executed and others – including Castro – transported to a prison north of
Santiago
Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...
. Believing Castro incapable of planning the attack alone, the government accused ''Ortodoxo'' and PSP politicians of involvement, putting 122 defendants on trial on 21 September at the Palace of Justice, Santiago. Acting as his own defense counsel, Castro cited Martí as the intellectual author of the attack and convinced the three judges to overrule the army's decision to keep all defendants handcuffed in court, proceeding to argue that the charge with which they were accused – of "organizing an uprising of armed persons against the Constitutional Powers of the State" – was incorrect, for they had risen up against Batista, who had seized power in an unconstitutional manner. The trial embarrassed the army by revealing that they had tortured suspects, after which they tried unsuccessfully to prevent Castro from testifying any further, claiming he was too ill. The trial ended on 5 October, with the acquittal of most defendants; 55 were sentenced to prison terms of between 7 months and 13 years. Castro was sentenced on 16 October, during which he delivered a speech that would be printed under the title of ''
History Will Absolve Me
''History Will Absolve Me'' (Spanish: ''La historia me absolverá'') is the title of a two-hour speech made by Fidel Castro on 16 October 1953. Castro made the speech in his own defense in court against the charges brought against him after he led ...
''. Castro was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment in the hospital wing of the Model Prison (''
Presidio Modelo
The Presidio Modelo was a "model prison" with panopticon design, built on the Isla de Pinos ("Isle of Pines"), now the Isle of Youth, Isla de la Juventud ("Isle of Youth"), in Cuba. It is located in the suburban quarter of Chacón, Nueva Gerona ...
''), a relatively comfortable and modern institution on the
Isla de Pinos
Isla de la Juventud (; en, Isle of Youth) is the second-largest Cuban island (after Cuba's mainland) and the seventh-largest island in the West Indies (after mainland Cuba itself, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and Andro ...
.
Imprisonment and 26 July Movement: 1953–1955
Imprisoned with 25 comrades, Castro renamed his group the "
26th of July Movement" (MR-26-7) in memory of the Moncada attack's date, and formed a school for prisoners. He read widely, enjoying the works of Marx, Lenin, and Martí but also reading books by
Freud,
Kant
Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aest ...
,
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
,
Munthe,
Maugham Maugham is a surname most commonly associated with the English literary family. The name is a variant of Malham, Malgham, and Malghum. Families with the name originate from the area surrounding Malham and Kirkby Malham.
Well-known persons with this ...
, and
Dostoyevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...
, analyzing them within a Marxist framework. Corresponding with supporters, he maintained control over the Movement and organized the publication of ''History Will Absolve Me''. Initially permitted a relative amount of freedom within the prison, he was locked up in
solitary confinement after inmates sang anti-Batista songs on a visit by the president in February 1954. Meanwhile, Castro's wife Mirta gained employment in the Ministry of the Interior, something he discovered through a radio announcement. Appalled, he raged that he would rather die "a thousand times" than "suffer impotently from such an insult".
Both Fidel and Mirta initiated divorce proceedings, with Mirta taking custody of their son Fidelito; this angered Castro, who did not want his son growing up in a bourgeois environment.
[; ; .]
![Fidel Castro and his men in the Sierra Maestra](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Fidel_Castro_and_his_men_in_the_Sierra_Maestra.jpg)
In 1954, Batista's government held
presidential elections
A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President.
Elections by country
Albania
The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public.
Chile
The pr ...
, but no politician stood against him; the election was widely considered fraudulent. It had allowed some political opposition to be voiced, and Castro's supporters had agitated for an amnesty for the Moncada incident's perpetrators. Some politicians suggested an amnesty would be good publicity, and the Congress and Batista agreed. Backed by the U.S. and major corporations, Batista believed Castro to be no threat, and on 15 May 1955, the prisoners were released. Returning to Havana, Castro gave radio interviews and press conferences; the government closely monitored him, curtailing his activities. Now divorced, Castro had sexual affairs with two female supporters, Naty Revuelta and Maria Laborde, each conceiving him a child. Setting about strengthening the MR-26-7, he established an 11-person National Directorate but retained autocratic control, with some dissenters labeling him a ''
caudillo
A ''caudillo'' ( , ; osp, cabdillo, from Latin , diminutive of ''caput'' "head") is a type of personalist leader wielding military and political power. There is no precise definition of ''caudillo'', which is often used interchangeably with " ...
'' (dictator); he argued that a successful revolution could not be run by committee and required a strong leader.
In 1955, bombings and violent demonstrations led to a crackdown on dissent, with Castro and Raúl fleeing the country to evade arrest. Castro sent a letter to the press, declaring that he was "leaving Cuba because all doors of peaceful struggle have been closed to me ... As a follower of Martí, I believe the hour has come to take our rights and not beg for them, to fight instead of pleading for them." The Castros and several comrades traveled to Mexico, where Raúl befriended an Argentine doctor and
Marxist–Leninist
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialect ...
named
Ernesto "Che" Guevara
Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quoted ...
, who was working as a journalist and photographer for "''Agencia Latina de Noticias''". Fidel liked him, later describing him as "a more advanced revolutionary than I was". Castro also associated with the Spaniard
Alberto Bayo
Alberto Bayo y Giroud (27 March 1892 – 4 August 1967) was a Cuban military commander of the Republican faction during the Spanish Civil War. His most significant action during the war was the attempted invasion of the Nationalist-held islands ...
, who agreed to teach Castro's rebels the necessary skills in
guerrilla warfare. Requiring funding, Castro toured the U.S. in search of wealthy sympathizers, there being monitored by Batista's agents, who allegedly orchestrated a failed assassination attempt against him. Castro kept in contact with the MR-26-7 in Cuba, where they had gained a large support base in Oriente. Other militant anti-Batista groups had sprung up, primarily from the student movement; most notable was the
Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil
Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil (abbreviation: DRE; English: Student Revolutionary Directorate) was a Cuban student activist group which in opposition to Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista from 1954 to 1957 played a role in the Cuban Revolut ...
(DRE), founded by
José Antonio Echeverría
José Antonio Echeverría (July 16, 1932 in Cárdenas, Matanzas – March 13, 1957 in Havana, Cuba) was a Cuban revolutionary and student leader.
The President of the Federation of University Students (''Federación Estudiantil Universita ...
. Antonio met with Castro in
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...
, but Castro opposed the student's support for indiscriminate assassination.
After purchasing the decrepit yacht ''
Granma'', on 25 November 1956, Castro set sail from
Tuxpan
Tuxpan (or Túxpam, fully Túxpam de Rodríguez Cano) is both a municipality and city located in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The population of the city was 78,523 and of the municipality was 134,394 inhabitants, according to the INEGI census ...
, Veracruz, with 81 armed revolutionaries. The crossing to Cuba was harsh, with food running low and many suffering
seasickness
Motion sickness occurs due to a difference between actual and expected motion. Symptoms commonly include nausea, vomiting, cold sweat, headache, dizziness, tiredness, loss of appetite, and increased salivation. Complications may rarely include d ...
. At some points, they had to bail water caused by a leak, and at another, a man fell overboard, delaying their journey. The plan had been for the crossing to take five days, and on the ''Granma''s scheduled day of arrival, 30 November, MR-26-7 members under
Frank País
Frank País García (December 7, 1934 – July 30, 1957) was a Cuban revolutionary who campaigned for the overthrow of General Fulgencio Batista's government in Cuba. País was the urban coordinator of the 26th of July Movement, and was a key or ...
led an armed uprising in Santiago and Manzanillo. However, the ''Granma''s journey ultimately lasted seven days, and with Castro and his men unable to provide reinforcements, País and his militants dispersed after two days of intermittent attacks.
Guerrilla war: 1956–1959
![2012-02-Sierra Maestra Turquino Nationalpark Kuba 01 anagoria](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/2012-02-Sierra_Maestra_Turquino_Nationalpark_Kuba_01_anagoria.JPG)
The ''Granma'' ran aground in a
mangrove swamp at Playa Las Coloradas, close to
Los Cayuelos, on 2 December 1956. Fleeing inland, its crew headed for the forested mountain range of Oriente's
Sierra Maestra
The Sierra Maestra is a mountain range that runs westward across the south of the old Oriente Province in southeast Cuba, rising abruptly from the coast. The range falls mainly within the Santiago de Cuba and in Granma Provinces. Some view it a ...
, being repeatedly attacked by Batista's troops. Upon arrival, Castro discovered that only 19 rebels had made it to their destination, the rest having been killed or captured. Setting up an
encampment
Camp may refer to:
Outdoor accommodation and recreation
* Campsite or campground, a recreational outdoor sleeping and eating site
* a temporary settlement for nomads
* Camp, a term used in New England, Northern Ontario and New Brunswick to descri ...
, the survivors included the Castros, Che Guevara, and
Camilo Cienfuegos. They began launching raids on small army posts to obtain weaponry, and in January 1957 they overran the outpost at La Plata, treating any soldiers that they wounded but executing Chicho Osorio, the local ''mayoral'' (land company overseer), who was despised by the local peasants and who boasted of killing one of Castro's rebels. Osorio's execution aided the rebels in gaining the trust of locals, although they largely remained unenthusiastic and suspicious of the revolutionaries. As trust grew, some locals joined the rebels, although most new recruits came from urban areas. With volunteers boosting the rebel forces to over 200, in July 1957 Castro divided his army into three columns, commanded by himself, his brother, and Guevara. The MR-26-7 members operating in urban areas continued agitation, sending supplies to Castro, and on 16 February 1957, he met with other senior members to discuss tactics; here he met
Celia Sánchez, who would become a close friend.
![Sierra Maestra -mapa rev cubana-](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Sierra_Maestra_-mapa_rev_cubana-.png)
Across Cuba, anti-Batista groups carried out bombings and sabotage; police responded with mass arrests, torture, and extrajudicial executions.
In March 1957, the DRE launched a failed attack on the presidential palace, during which Antonio was shot dead.
[; ; .] Batista's government often resorted to brutal methods to keep Cuba's cities under control. In the Sierra Maestra mountains, Castro was joined by
Frank Sturgis
Frank Anthony Sturgis (December 9, 1924 – December 4, 1993), born Frank Angelo Fiorini, was one of the five Watergate scandal, Watergate burglars whose capture led to the end of the presidency of Richard Nixon. He served in several branche ...
who offered to train Castro's troops in guerrilla warfare. Castro accepted the offer, but he also had an immediate need for guns and ammunition, so Sturgis became a gunrunner. Sturgis purchased boatloads of weapons and ammunition from
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
(CIA) weapons expert Samuel Cummings' International Armament Corporation in Alexandria, Virginia. Sturgis opened a training camp in the Sierra Maestra mountains, where he taught Che Guevara and other 26 July Movement rebel soldiers guerrilla warfare.
Frank País
Frank País García (December 7, 1934 – July 30, 1957) was a Cuban revolutionary who campaigned for the overthrow of General Fulgencio Batista's government in Cuba. País was the urban coordinator of the 26th of July Movement, and was a key or ...
was also killed, leaving Castro the MR-26-7's unchallenged leader. Although Guevara and Raúl were well known for their Marxist–Leninist views, Castro hid his, hoping to gain the support of less radical revolutionaries.
In 1957 he met with leading members of the ''Partido Ortodoxo'',
Raúl Chibás and
Felipe Pazos
Felipe Pazos Roque (September 27, 1912 – February 26, 2001) was a Cuban economist who initially supported the Cuban Revolution of Fidel Castro, but became disillusioned with the increasingly radical nature of the revolutionary government. Born in ...
, authoring the Sierra Maestra Manifesto, in which they demanded that a provisional civilian government be set up to implement moderate agrarian reform, industrialization, and a literacy campaign before holding multiparty elections.
[; ; . The text of the Sierra Maestra Manifesto can be found online at ] As Cuba's press was censored, Castro contacted foreign media to spread his message; he became a celebrity after being interviewed by
Herbert Matthews
Herbert Lionel Matthews (January 10, 1900 – July 30, 1977) was a reporter and editorialist for ''The New York Times'' who, at the age of 57, won widespread attention after revealing that the 30-year-old Fidel Castro was still alive and living i ...
, a journalist from ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''. Reporters from
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
and ''
Paris Match
''Paris Match'' () is a French-language weekly news magazine. It covers major national and international news along with celebrity lifestyle features.
History and profile
A sports news magazine, ''Match l'intran'' (a play on '' L'Intransigeant ...
'' soon followed.
![Luis Korda 02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Luis_Korda_02.jpg)
Castro's guerrillas increased their attacks on military outposts, forcing the government to withdraw from the Sierra Maestra region, and by spring 1958, the rebels controlled a hospital, schools, a printing press, slaughterhouse, land-mine factory and a cigar-making factory. By 1958, Batista was under increasing pressure, a result of his military failures coupled with increasing domestic and foreign criticism surrounding his administration's press censorship, torture, and extrajudicial executions.
Influenced by anti-Batista sentiment among their citizens, the U.S. government ceased supplying him with weaponry.
[.] The opposition called a
general strike, accompanied by armed attacks from the MR-26-7. Beginning on 9 April, it received strong support in central and eastern Cuba, but little elsewhere.
Batista responded with an all-out-attack,
Operation Verano
Operation Verano (, "Operation Summer") was the name given to the summer offensive in 1958 by the Batista government during the Cuban Revolution, known to the rebels as ''La Ofensiva''. The offensive was designed to crush Fidel Castro's revoluti ...
, in which the army aerially bombarded forested areas and villages suspected of aiding the militants, while 10,000 soldiers commanded by General
Eulogio Cantillo
Eulogio Cantillo Porras (13 September 1911 – 9 September 1978) was a general in the Cuban Army. General Cantillo served as Chief of the Joint Staff during the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, but did not participate in the military coup that ...
surrounded the Sierra Maestra, driving north to the rebel encampments.
Despite their numerical and technological superiority, the army had no experience with guerrilla warfare, and Castro halted their offensive using land mines and ambushes.
[; .] Many of Batista's soldiers defected to Castro's rebels, who also benefited from local popular support. In the summer, the MR-26-7 went on the offensive, pushing the army out of the mountains, with Castro using his columns in a pincer movement to surround the main army concentration in Santiago. By November, Castro's forces controlled most of Oriente and Las Villas, and divided Cuba in two by closing major roads and rail lines, severely disadvantaging Batista.
Fearing Castro was a socialist, the U.S. instructed Cantillo to oust Batista.
By this time the great majority of Cuban people had turned against the Batista regime. Ambassador to Cuba, E. T. Smith, who felt the whole CIA mission had become too close to the MR-26-7 movement, personally went to Batista and informed him that the U.S. would no longer support him and felt he no longer could control the situation in Cuba. General Cantillo secretly agreed to a ceasefire with Castro, promising that Batista would be tried as a
war criminal;
[; ; .] however, Batista was warned, and fled into exile with over US$300,000,000 on 31 December 1958. Cantillo entered Havana's
Presidential Palace, proclaimed the
Supreme Court judge
Carlos Piedra
Carlos Manuel Piedra y Piedra (or Carlos Modesto Piedra y Piedra) (1895–1988) was a Cuban politician who served as the Interim President of Cuba for a single day (January 2–3, 1959) during the transition of power between Fulgencio Batista and r ...
to be president, and began appointing the new government. Furious, Castro ended the ceasefire, and ordered Cantillo's arrest by sympathetic figures in the army. Accompanying celebrations at news of Batista's downfall on 1 January 1959, Castro ordered the MR-26-7 to prevent widespread looting and vandalism. Cienfuegos and Guevara led their columns into Havana on 2 January, while Castro entered Santiago and gave a speech invoking the wars of independence. Heading toward Havana, he greeted cheering crowds at every town, giving press conferences and interviews. Castro reached Havana on 9 January 1959.
Provisional government: 1959
At Castro's command, the politically moderate lawyer
Manuel Urrutia Lleó
Manuel Urrutia Lleó (December 8, 1901 – 5 July 1981) was a liberal Cuban lawyer and politician. He campaigned against the Gerardo Machado government and the second presidency of Fulgencio Batista during the 1950s, before serving as president ...
was proclaimed provisional president but Castro announced (falsely) that Urrutia had been selected by "popular election". Most of Urrutia's cabinet were MR-26-7 members. Entering Havana, Castro proclaimed himself Representative of the Rebel Armed Forces of the Presidency, setting up home and office in the penthouse of the
Havana Hilton Hotel. Castro exercised a great deal of influence over Urrutia's regime, which was now
ruling by decree. He ensured that the government implemented policies to cut corruption and fight illiteracy and that it attempted to remove Batistanos from positions of power by dismissing Congress and barring all those elected in the rigged elections of 1954 and 1958 from future office. He then pushed Urrutia to issue a temporary ban on political parties; he repeatedly said that they would eventually hold multiparty elections. Although repeatedly denying that he was a communist to the press, he began clandestinely meeting members of the PSP to discuss the creation of a socialist state.
In suppressing the revolution, Batista's government had killed thousands of Cubans; Castro and influential sectors of the press put the death toll at 20,000, but a list of victims published shortly after the revolution contained only 898 names—over half of them combatants. More recent estimates place the death toll between 1,000 and 4,000. In response to popular uproar, which demanded that those responsible be brought to justice, Castro helped to set up many trials, resulting in hundreds of executions. Although popular domestically, critics—in particular the U.S. press, argued that many were not
fair trial
A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks.
Types
Variations of fairs incl ...
s. Castro responded that "revolutionary justice is not based on legal precepts, but on moral conviction."
Acclaimed by many across Latin America, he traveled to Venezuela where he met with President-elect
Rómulo Betancourt
Rómulo Ernesto Betancourt Bello (22 February 1908 – 28 September 1981; ), known as "The Father of Venezuelan Democracy", was the president of Venezuela, serving from 1945 to 1948 and again from 1959 to 1964, as well as leader of Acción De ...
, unsuccessfully requesting a loan and a new deal for Venezuelan oil. Returning home, an argument between Castro and senior government figures broke out. He was infuriated that the government had left thousands unemployed by closing down casinos and brothels. As a result, Prime Minister
José Miró Cardona
José Miró Cardona (22 August 1902 – 10 August 1974) was a Cuban politician. He served as Prime Minister for a period of some six weeks in early 1959, following his appointment by President Manuel Urrutia on 5 January 1959. On 13 February ...
resigned, going into exile in the U.S. and joining the anti-Castro movement.
Premiership
Consolidating leadership: 1959–1960
On 16 February 1959, Castro was sworn in as
Prime Minister of Cuba
The Prime Minister of Cuba ( es, Primer Ministro de Cuba), officially known as the President of the Council of Ministers ( es, Presidente del Consejo de Ministros de Cuba) between 1976 and 2019, is the head of government of Cuba and the chairma ...
. In April, he visited the U.S. on a
charm offensive where President
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
would not meet with him, but instead sent Vice President
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
, whom Castro instantly disliked. After meeting Castro, Nixon described him to Eisenhower as: "The one fact we can be sure of is that Castro has those indefinable qualities which made him a leader of men. Whatever we may think of him he is going to be a great factor in the development of Cuba and very possibly in Latin American affairs generally. He seems to be sincere. He is either incredibly naive about Communism or under Communist discipline-my guess is the former...His ideas as to how to run a government or an economy are less developed than those of almost any world figure I have met in fifty countries. But because he has the power to lead...we have no choice but at least try to orient him in the right direction".
![René Lévesque Fidel Castro Montreal 1959](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Ren%C3%A9_L%C3%A9vesque_Fidel_Castro_Montreal_1959.jpg)
Proceeding to Canada, Trinidad, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, Castro attended an economic conference in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
, unsuccessfully proposing a $30 billion U.S.-funded "
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $ in ) in economic re ...
" for Latin America. In May 1959, Castro signed into law the
First Agrarian Reform, setting a cap for landholdings to per owner and prohibiting foreigners from obtaining Cuban land ownership. Around 200,000 peasants received title deeds as large land holdings were broken up; popular among the working class, it alienated the richer landowners, including Castro's own mother, whose farmlands were taken. Within a year, Castro and his government had effectively redistributed 15 percent of the nation's wealth, declaring that "the revolution is the dictatorship of the exploited against the exploiters."
![Sukarno and Fidel, 1960](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Sukarno_and_Fidel%2C_1960.jpg)
Castro appointed himself president of the National Tourist Industry, introducing unsuccessful measures to encourage African-American tourists to visit, advertising Cuba as a tropical paradise free of
racial discrimination
Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their skin color, race or ethnic origin.Individuals can discriminate by refusing to do business with, socialize with, or share resources with people of a certain g ...
. Judges and politicians had their pay reduced while low-level civil servants saw theirs raised, and in March 1959, Castro declared rents for those who paid less than $100 a month halved.
[.] The Cuban government also began to expropriate the casinos and properties from mafia leaders and taking millions in cash. Before he died
Meyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky (born Maier Suchowljansky; July 4, 1902 – January 15, 1983), known as the "Mob's Accountant", was an American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the ...
said Cuba "ruined" him.
In the summer of 1959, Fidel began nationalizing plantation lands owned by American investors as well as confiscating the property of foreign landowners. He also seized property previously held by wealthy Cubans who had fled. He nationalized sugar production and oil refinement, over the objection of foreign investors who owned stakes in these commodities.
Although then refusing to categorize his regime as socialist and repeatedly denying being a communist, Castro appointed Marxists to senior government and military positions. Most significantly, Che Guevara became Governor of the Central Bank and then Minister of Industries. President Urrutia increasingly expressed concern with the rising influence of Marxism. Angered, Castro in turn announced his resignation as prime minister on 18 July—blaming Urrutia for complicating government with his "fevered anti-Communism". Over 500,000 Castro-supporters surrounded the Presidential Palace demanding Urrutia's resignation, which he submitted. On 23 July, Castro resumed his premiership and appointed Marxist
Osvaldo Dorticós Osvaldo may refer to the following people:
Given name
*Osvaldo Alonso, Cuban football player
*Osvaldo Ardiles (born 1952), an Argentine football player and coach
*Osvaldo Bagnoli, an Italian football coach
*Osvaldo Brandão, a Brazilian football c ...
as president.
Castro's government emphasised social projects to improve Cuba's
standard of living, often to the detriment of economic development.
[.] Major emphasis was placed on education, and during the first 30 months of Castro's government, more classrooms were opened than in the previous 30 years. The Cuban primary education system offered a work-study program, with half of the time spent in the classroom, and the other half in a productive activity. Health care was nationalized and expanded, with rural health centers and urban polyclinics opening up across the island to offer free medical aid. Universal vaccination against childhood diseases was implemented, and infant mortality rates were reduced dramatically.
A third part of this social program was the improvement of infrastructure. Within the first six months of Castro's government, of roads were built across the island, while $300 million was spent on water and sanitation projects.
Over 800 houses were constructed every month in the early years of the administration in an effort to cut homelessness, while nurseries and day-care centers were opened for children and other centers opened for the disabled and elderly.
![CheLaCoubreMarch](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/CheLaCoubreMarch.jpg)
Castro used radio and television to develop a "dialogue with the people", posing questions and making provocative statements. His regime remained popular with workers, peasants, and students, who constituted the majority of the country's population, while opposition came primarily from the middle class; thousands of doctors, engineers and other professionals emigrated to Florida in the U.S., causing an economic
brain drain. Productivity decreased and the country's financial reserves were drained within two years.
After conservative press expressed hostility towards the government, the pro-Castro printers' trade union disrupted editorial staff, and in January 1960 the government ordered them to publish a "clarification" written by the printers' union at the end of articles critical of the government. Castro's government arrested hundreds of
counter-revolution
A counter-revolutionary or an anti-revolutionary is anyone who opposes or resists a revolution, particularly one who acts after a revolution in order to try to overturn it or reverse its course, in full or in part. The adjective "counter-revoluti ...
aries, many of whom were subjected to solitary confinement, rough treatment, and threatening behavior. Militant anti-Castro groups, funded by exiles, the CIA, and the Dominican government, undertook armed attacks and set up guerrilla bases in Cuba's mountains, leading to the six-year
Escambray Rebellion
The Escambray rebellion was an armed conflict from 1959 to 1965 in the Escambray Mountains during which several insurgent groups fought against the Cuban government led by Fidel Castro. The military operation against the rebellion was called the ...
.
At the time, 1960, the
Cold War raged between two superpowers: the United States, a capitalist
liberal democracy
Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under an indirect democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into ...
, and the Soviet Union (USSR), a Marxist–Leninist socialist state ruled by the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
. Expressing contempt for the U.S., Castro shared the ideological views of the USSR, establishing relations with several Marxist–Leninist states. Meeting with Soviet
First Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan, Castro agreed to provide the USSR with sugar, fruit, fibers, and hides in return for crude oil, fertilizers, industrial goods, and a $100 million loan. Cuba's government ordered the country's refineries – then controlled by the U.S. corporations
Shell
Shell may refer to:
Architecture and design
* Shell (structure), a thin structure
** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses
** Thin-shell structure
Science Biology
* Seashell, a hard o ...
and
Esso – to process Soviet oil, but under U.S. pressure they refused. Castro responded by expropriating and
nationalizing
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
the refineries. Retaliating, the U.S. cancelled its import of Cuban sugar, provoking Castro to nationalize most U.S.-owned assets on the island, including banks and sugar mills.
![La Coubre explosion](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/La_Coubre_explosion.jpg)
Relations between Cuba and the U.S. were further strained following the explosion of a French vessel, the ''
La Coubre'', in Havana harbor in March 1960. The ship carried weapons purchased from Belgium, and the cause of the explosion was never determined, but Castro publicly insinuated that the U.S. government was guilty of sabotage. He ended this speech with "''¡Patria o Muerte!''" ("Fatherland or Death"), a proclamation that he made much use of in ensuing years. Inspired by their earlier success with the
1954 Guatemalan coup d'état
The 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état was the result of a CIA covert operation code-named PBSuccess. It deposed the democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz and ended the Guatemalan Revolution of 1944–1954. It installed the mi ...
, in March 1960, U.S. President Eisenhower authorized the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
to overthrow Castro's government. He provided them with a budget of $13 million and permitted them to ally with the
Mafia
"Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...
, who were aggrieved that Castro's government closed down their brothel and casino businesses in Cuba. On 13 October 1960, the U.S. prohibited the majority of exports to Cuba, initiating
an economic embargo. In retaliation, the National Institute for Agrarian Reform
INRA took control of 383 private-run businesses on 14 October, and on 25 October a further 166 U.S. companies operating in Cuba had their premises seized and nationalized. On 16 December, the U.S. ended its import quota of Cuban sugar, the country's primary export.
United Nations
![Fidel Castro - UN General Assembly 1960](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Fidel_Castro_-_UN_General_Assembly_1960.jpg)
In September 1960, Castro flew to New York City for the
General Assembly of the United Nations
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
. Staying at the
Hotel Theresa
The Hotel Theresa is located at 2082-96 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard between West 124th and 125th Streets in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. In the mid-20th century, it was a vibrant center of African American life in ...
in
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...
, he met with journalists and anti-establishment figures like
Malcolm X
Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of I ...
. Castro had decided to stay in Harlem as a way of expressing solidarity with the poor
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
population living there, thus leading to an assortment of world leaders such as Nasser of Egypt and Nehru of India having to drive out to Harlem to see him.
[.] He also met Soviet Premier
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
, with the two publicly condemning the poverty and
racism faced by Americans in areas like Harlem.
Relations between Castro and Khrushchev were warm; they led the applause to one another's speeches at the General Assembly. The opening session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 1960 was a highly rancorous one with Khrushchev famously
banging his shoe against his desk to interrupt a speech by Filipino delegate
Lorenzo Sumulong
Lorenzo Sumulong Sumulong Sr. (September 5, 1905 – October 21, 1997) was a Filipino politician who served in the Philippine Senate for four decades, and as a delegate of his country to the United Nations. He was noted for having engaged in a de ...
, which set the general tone for the debates and speeches.
Castro delivered the longest speech ever held before the United Nations General Assembly, speaking for four and a half hours in a speech mostly given over to denouncing American policies towards Latin America. Subsequently, visited by Polish First Secretary
Władysław Gomułka
Władysław Gomułka (; 6 February 1905 – 1 September 1982) was a Polish communist politician. He was the ''de facto'' leader of post-war Poland from 1947 until 1948. Following the Polish October he became leader again from 1956 to 1970. G ...
, Bulgarian First Secretary
Todor Zhivkov
Todor Hristov Zhivkov ( bg, Тодор Христов Живков ; 7 September 1911 – 5 August 1998) was a Bulgarian communist statesman who served as the ''de facto'' leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria (PRB) from 1954 until 1989 ...
, Egyptian President
Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Indian Premier
Jawaharlal Nehru
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat—
*
*
*
* and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...
, Castro also received an evening's reception from the
Fair Play for Cuba Committee The Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC) was an activist group set up in New York City by Robert Taber in April 1960.
History
The FPCC's purpose was to provide grassroots support for the Cuban Revolution against attacks by the United States gove ...
.
Back in Cuba, Castro feared a U.S.-backed coup; in 1959 his regime spent $120 million on Soviet, French, and Belgian weaponry and by early 1960 had doubled the size of Cuba's armed forces. Fearing counter-revolutionary elements in the army, the government created a People's Militia to arm citizens favorable to the revolution, training at least 50,000 civilians in combat techniques. In September 1960, they created the
Committees for the Defense of the Revolution
Committees for the Defense of the Revolution ( es, Comités de Defensa de la Revolución, links=no), or CDR, are a network of neighborhood committees across Cuba. The organizations, described as the "eyes and ears of the Revolution," exist to h ...
(CDR), a nationwide civilian organization which implemented neighborhood spying to detect counter-revolutionary activities as well as organizing health and education campaigns, becoming a conduit for public complaints. By 1970, a third of the population would be involved in the CDR, and this would eventually rise to 80%.
Despite the fear of a coup, Castro garnered support in New York City. On 18 February 1961, 400 people – mainly Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and college students – picketed in the rain outside of the United Nations rallying for Castro's anti-colonial values and his effort to reduce the United States' power over Cuba. The protesters held up signs that read, "Mr. Kennedy, Cuba is Not For Sale.", "
Viva Fidel Castro!" and "Down With Yankee Imperialism!". Around 200 policemen were on the scene, but the protesters continued to chant slogans and throw pennies in support of Fidel Castro's socialist movement. Some Americans disagreed with President
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
's decision to ban trade with Cuba, and outwardly supported his nationalist revolutionary tactics.
Castro proclaimed the new administration a
direct democracy, in which Cubans could assemble at demonstrations to express their democratic will. As a result, he rejected the need for elections, claiming that
representative democratic systems served the interests of socio-economic elites. U.S. Secretary of State
Christian Herter
Christian Archibald Herter (March 28, 1895December 30, 1966) was an American diplomat and Republican politician who was the 59th Governor of Massachusetts from 1953 to 1957 and United States Secretary of State from 1959 to 1961. His moderate ...
announced that Cuba was adopting the Soviet model of rule, with a one-party state, government control of trade unions, suppression of civil liberties, and the absence of freedom of speech and press.
Bay of Pigs Invasion and "Socialist Cuba": 1961–1962
In January 1961, Castro ordered
Havana's U.S. Embassy to reduce its 300-member staff, suspecting that many of them were spies. The U.S. responded by ending diplomatic relations, and it increased CIA funding for exiled dissidents; these militants began attacking ships that traded with Cuba, and bombed factories, shops, and sugar mills. Both President Eisenhower and his successor President Kennedy supported a CIA plan to aid a dissident militia, the Democratic Revolutionary Front, to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro; the plan resulted in the
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion (, sometimes called ''Invasión de Playa Girón'' or ''Batalla de Playa Girón'' after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban exiles, covertly fin ...
in April 1961. On 15 April, CIA-supplied
B-26s bombed three Cuban military airfields; the U.S. announced that the perpetrators were defecting Cuban air force pilots, but Castro exposed these claims as
false flag misinformation. Fearing invasion, he ordered the arrest of between 20,000 and 100,000 suspected counter-revolutionaries, publicly proclaiming, "What the imperialists cannot forgive us, is that we have made a Socialist revolution under their noses", his first announcement that the government was socialist.
![CheyFidel](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/CheyFidel.jpg)
The CIA and the Democratic Revolutionary Front had based a 1,400-strong army, Brigade 2506, in
Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...
. On the night of 16 to 17 April, Brigade 2506 landed along Cuba's
Bay of Pigs and engaged in a firefight with a local revolutionary militia. Castro ordered Captain José Ramón Fernández to launch the counter-offensive, before taking personal control of it. After bombing the invaders' ships and bringing in reinforcements, Castro forced the Brigade to surrender on 20 April. He ordered the 1189 captured rebels to be interrogated by a panel of journalists on live television, personally taking over the questioning on 25 April. Fourteen were put on trial for crimes allegedly committed before the revolution, while the others were returned to the U.S. in exchange for medicine and food valued at U.S. $25 million. Castro's victory reverberated around the world, especially in Latin America, but it also increased internal opposition primarily among the middle-class Cubans who had been detained in the run-up to the invasion. Although most were freed within a few days, many fled to the U.S., establishing themselves in Florida.
Consolidating "Socialist Cuba", Castro united the MR-26-7, PSP and Revolutionary Directorate into a governing party based on the Leninist principle of
democratic centralism: the
Integrated Revolutionary Organizations
The Communist Party of Cuba ( es, Partido Comunista de Cuba, PCC) is the sole ruling party of Cuba. It was founded on 3 October 1965 as the successor to the :es:Partido Unido de la Revolución Socialista de Cuba, United Party of the Cuban Soc ...
(''Organizaciones Revolucionarias Integradas'' – ORI), renamed the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution (PURSC) in 1962. Although the USSR was hesitant regarding Castro's embrace of socialism, relations with the Soviets deepened. Castro sent Fidelito for a Moscow schooling,
[; .] Soviet technicians arrived on the island,
and Castro was awarded the
Lenin Peace Prize
The International Lenin Peace Prize (russian: международная Ленинская премия мира, ''mezhdunarodnaya Leninskaya premiya mira)'' was a Soviet Union award named in honor of Vladimir Lenin. It was awarded by a pane ...
. In December 1961, Castro admitted that he had been a
Marxist–Leninist
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialect ...
for years, and in his Second Declaration of Havana he called on Latin America to rise up in revolution. In response, the U.S. successfully pushed the
Organization of American States to expel Cuba; the Soviets privately reprimanded Castro for recklessness, although he received praise from China. Despite their ideological affinity with China, in the
Sino-Soviet split
The Sino-Soviet split was the breaking of political relations between the China, People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union caused by Doctrine, doctrinal divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications ...
, Cuba allied with the wealthier Soviets, who offered economic and military aid.
The ORI began shaping Cuba using the Soviet model, persecuting political opponents and perceived
social deviants
The Deviants (formerly The Social Deviants) were an English rock band originally active from late 1966 to 1969, but later used as a vehicle for the musical work of writer Mick Farren until his death in 2013.
Farren has stated that The Deviant ...
such as prostitutes and homosexuals; Castro considered same-sex sexual activity a bourgeois trait. Gay men were forced into the
Military Units to Aid Production
Military Units to Aid Production or UMAPs (Unidades Militares de Ayuda a la Producción) were agricultural forced labor camps operated by the Cuban government from November 1965 to July 1968 in the province of Camagüey.Guerra, Lillian. ""Gender ...
(''Unidades Militares de Ayuda a la Producción'' – UMAP); after many revolutionary intellectuals decried this move, the UMAP camps were closed in 1967, although gay men continued to be imprisoned. By 1962, Cuba's economy was in steep decline, a result of poor economic management and low productivity coupled with the U.S. trade embargo. Food shortages led to rationing, resulting in protests in
Cárdenas. Security reports indicated that many Cubans associated austerity with the "Old Communists" of the PSP, while Castro considered a number of them – namely
Aníbal Escalante and
Blas Roca
Blas Roca Calderio (24 July 1908 – 25 April 1987) was a Cuban politician and Marxist theorist who served as President of the National Assembly of People's Power in Cuba from 1976 to 1981. He was also head of the pre-1959 revolution Communist P ...
– unduly loyal to Moscow. In March 1962 Castro removed the most prominent "Old Communists" from office, labelling them "sectarian". On a personal level, Castro was increasingly lonely, and his relations with Guevara became strained as the latter became increasingly anti-Soviet and pro-Chinese.
Cuban Missile Crisis and furthering socialism: 1962–1968
![U2 Image of Cuban Missile Crisis](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/U2_Image_of_Cuban_Missile_Crisis.jpg)
Militarily weaker than
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
, Khrushchev wanted to install Soviet
R-12 MRBM
A medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) is a type of ballistic missile with medium range, this last classification depending on the standards of certain organizations. Within the U.S. Department of Defense, a medium-range missile is defined b ...
nuclear missiles on Cuba to even the power balance. Although conflicted, Castro agreed, believing it would guarantee Cuba's safety and enhance the cause of socialism. Undertaken in secrecy, only the Castro brothers, Guevara, Dorticós and security chief
Ramiro Valdés
Ramiro is a Spanish and Portuguese name. Notable people with the name include:
Given name
* Ramiro I of Asturias (c. 790–850), king of Asturias
* Ramiro II of León (c. 900–951), king of Leon
* Ramiro III of León (961–985), king of Leon
* ...
knew the full plan. Upon discovering it through aerial reconnaissance, in October the U.S. implemented an island-wide
quarantine
A quarantine is a restriction on the movement of people, animals and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have been ...
to search vessels headed to Cuba, sparking the
Cuban Missile Crisis. The U.S. saw the missiles as offensive; Castro insisted they were for defense only. Castro urged that Khrushchev should launch a nuclear strike on the U.S. if Cuba were invaded, but Khrushchev was desperate to avoid
nuclear war. Castro was left out of the negotiations, in which Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles in exchange for a U.S. commitment not to invade Cuba and an understanding that the U.S. would remove their
MRBMs from Turkey and Italy. Feeling betrayed by Khrushchev, Castro was furious and soon fell ill. Proposing a five-point plan, Castro demanded that the U.S. end its embargo, withdraw from
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base ( es, Base Naval de la Bahía de Guantánamo), officially known as Naval Station Guantanamo Bay or NSGB, (also called GTMO, pronounced Gitmo as jargon by members of the U.S. military) is a United States military bas ...
, cease supporting dissidents, and stop violating Cuban air space and territorial waters. He presented these demands to
U Thant
Thant (; ; January 22, 1909 – November 25, 1974), known honorifically as U Thant (), was a Burmese diplomat and the third secretary-general of the United Nations from 1961 to 1971, the first non-Scandinavian to hold the position. He held t ...
, visiting
Secretary-General of the United Nations
The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or SG) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the six principal organs of the United Nations.
The role of the secretary-g ...
, but the U.S. ignored them. In turn Castro refused to allow the U.N.'s inspection team into Cuba.
In May 1963, Castro visited the USSR at Khrushchev's personal invitation, touring 14 cities, addressing a
Red Square
Red Square ( rus, Красная площадь, Krasnaya ploshchad', ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːətʲ) is one of the oldest and largest squares in Moscow, the capital of Russia. Owing to its historical significance and the adjacent historical build ...
rally, and being awarded both the
Order of Lenin
The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration ...
and an honorary doctorate from
Moscow State University
M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
. Castro returned to Cuba with new ideas; inspired by Soviet newspaper ''
Pravda
''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the ...
'', he amalgamated ''Hoy'' and ''Revolución'' into a new daily, ''
Granma'', and oversaw large investment into Cuban sport that resulted in an increased international sporting reputation. Seeking to further consolidate control, in 1963 the government cracked down on Protestant sects in Cuba, with Castro labeling them counter-revolutionary "instruments of imperialism"; many preachers were found guilty of illegal U.S. links and imprisoned. Measures were implemented to force perceived idle and delinquent youths to work, primarily through the introduction of mandatory military service. In September, the government temporarily permitted emigration for anyone other than males aged between 15 and 26, thereby ridding the government of thousands of critics, most of whom were from upper and middle-class backgrounds. In 1963, Castro's mother died. This was the last time his private life was reported in Cuba's press. In January 1964, Castro returned to Moscow, officially to sign a new five-year sugar trade agreement, but also to discuss the ramifications of the
assassination of John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was in the vehicle with ...
. Castro was deeply concerned by the assassination, believing that a far-right conspiracy was behind it but that the Cubans would be blamed. In October 1965, the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations was officially renamed the "Cuban Communist Party" and published the membership of its Central Committee.
Despite Soviet misgivings, Castro continued to call for global revolution, funding militant leftists and those engaged in
national liberation
Wars of national liberation or national liberation revolutions are conflicts fought by nations to gain independence. The term is used in conjunction with wars against foreign powers (or at least those perceived as foreign) to establish separat ...
struggles. Cuba's foreign policy was strongly anti-imperialist, believing that every nation should control its own natural resources. He supported Che Guevara's "Andean project", an unsuccessful plan to set up a guerrilla movement in the highlands of
Bolivia,
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = National seal
, national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
and
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
. He allowed revolutionary groups from around the world, from the
Viet Cong
,
, war = the Vietnam War
, image = FNL Flag.svg
, caption = The flag of the Viet Cong, adopted in 1960, is a variation on the flag of North Vietnam. Sometimes the lower stripe was green.
, active ...
to the
Black Panthers, to train in Cuba.
He considered Western-dominated Africa to be ripe for revolution, and sent troops and medics to aid
Ahmed Ben Bella
Ahmed Ben Bella ( ar, أحمد بن بلّة '; 25 December 1916 – 11 April 2012) was an Algerian politician, soldier and socialist revolutionary who served as the head of government of Algeria from 27 September 1962 to 15 September 1963 ...
's socialist regime in Algeria during the
Sand War
The Sand War or the Sands War () was a border conflict between Algeria and Morocco in October 1963. It resulted largely from the Moroccan government's claim to portions of Algeria's Tindouf and Béchar provinces. The Sand War led to heighten ...
. He also allied with
Alphonse Massamba-Débat
Alphonse Massamba-Débat (February 11, 1921 – March 25, 1977) was a political figure of the Republic of the Congo who led the country from 1963 until 1968 in a one-party system.
Biography Early life
He was born in the small village of Nkolo, Bo ...
's socialist government in
Congo-Brazzaville
The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...
. In 1965, Castro authorized Che Guevara to travel to
Congo-Kinshasa to train
revolutionaries against the Western-backed government. Castro was personally devastated when Guevara was killed by CIA-backed troops in Bolivia in October 1967 and publicly attributed it to Guevara's disregard for his own safety.
In 1966, Castro staged a
Tri-Continental Conference of Africa, Asia and Latin America in Havana, further establishing himself as a significant player on the world stage. From this conference, Castro created the Latin American Solidarity Organization (OLAS), which adopted the slogan of "The duty of a revolution is to make revolution", signifying Havana's leadership of Latin America's revolutionary movement.
![Fidel-Gagarin-hug](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Fidel-Gagarin-hug.jpg)
Castro's increasing role on the world stage strained his relationship with the USSR, now under the leadership of
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1964 and ...
. Asserting Cuba's independence, Castro refused to sign the
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation ...
, declaring it a Soviet-U.S. attempt to dominate the
Third World
The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the " First ...
. Diverting from Soviet Marxist doctrine, he suggested that Cuban society could evolve straight to
pure communism
In Marxist thought, a communist society or the communist system is the type of society and economic system postulated to emerge from technological advances in the productive forces, representing the ultimate goal of the political ideology of ...
rather than gradually progress through various stages of socialism. In turn, the Soviet-loyalist Aníbal Escalante began organizing a government network of opposition to Castro, though in January 1968, he and his supporters were arrested for allegedly passing state secrets to Moscow. Recognising Cuba's economic dependence on the Soviets, Castro relented to Brezhnev's pressure to be obedient, and in August 1968 he denounced the leaders of the
Prague Spring and praised the
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia refers to the events of 20–21 August 1968, when the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Rep ...
.
Influenced by China's
Great Leap Forward, in 1968 Castro proclaimed a
Great Revolutionary Offensive, closing all remaining privately owned shops and businesses and denouncing their owners as capitalist counter-revolutionaries. The severe lack of consumer goods for purchase led productivity to decline, as large sectors of the population felt little incentive to work hard. This was exacerbated by the perception that a revolutionary elite had emerged, consisting of those connected to the administration; they had access to better housing, private transportation, servants, and the ability to purchase luxury goods abroad.
Economic stagnation and Third World politics: 1969–1974
Castro publicly celebrated his administration's 10th anniversary in January 1969; in his celebratory speech he warned of sugar rations, reflecting the nation's economic problems. The 1969 crop was heavily damaged by a hurricane, and to meet its export quota, the government drafted in the army, implemented a seven-day working week, and postponed public holidays to lengthen the harvest. When that year's production quota was not met, Castro offered to resign during a public speech, but assembled crowds insisted he remain. Despite the economic issues, many of Castro's social reforms were popular, with the population largely supportive of the "Achievements of the Revolution" in education, medical care, housing, and road construction, as well as the policies of "direct democratic" public consultation. Seeking Soviet help, from 1970 to 1972 Soviet economists re-organized Cuba's economy, founding the Cuban-Soviet Commission of Economic, Scientific and Technical Collaboration, while Soviet Premier
Alexei Kosygin
Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin ( rus, Алексе́й Никола́евич Косы́гин, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsʲej nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ kɐˈsɨɡʲɪn; – 18 December 1980) was a Soviet statesman during the Cold War. He served as the Premi ...
visited in October 1971. In July 1972, Cuba joined the
Council for Mutual Economic Assistance
The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (, ; English abbreviation COMECON, CMEA, CEMA, or CAME) was an economic organization from 1949 to 1991 under the leadership of the Soviet Union that comprised the countries of the Eastern Bloc along wit ...
(Comecon), an economic organization of socialist states, although this further limited Cuba's economy to agricultural production.
![Bundesarchiv Bild 183-L0614-040, Berlin, Fidel Castro an der Grenze](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-L0614-040%2C_Berlin%2C_Fidel_Castro_an_der_Grenze.jpg)
In May 1970, the crews of two Cuban fishing boats were kidnapped by Florida-based dissident group
Alpha 66
Alpha 66 is an anti-Castro paramilitary organization. The group was originally formed by Cuban exiles in the early 1960s and was most active in the late 1970s and 1980s. Its activities declined in the 1980s. Historian Alan McPherson describes it a ...
, who demanded that Cuba release imprisoned militants. Under U.S. pressure, the hostages were released, and Castro welcomed them back as heroes. In April 1971, Castro was internationally condemned for ordering the arrest of dissident poet
Heberto Padilla who had been arrested 20 March; Padilla was freed, but the government established the National Cultural Council to ensure that intellectuals and artists supported the administration.
In November 1971,
Castro visited Chile, where Marxist President
Salvador Allende
Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...
had been elected as the head of
a left-wing coalition. Castro supported Allende's socialist reforms, but warned him of right-wing elements in Chile's military. In 1973, the military
led a coup d'état and established a military junta led by
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...
. Castro proceeded to Guinea to meet socialist President
Sékou Touré
Sekou, also spelled Sékou or Seku, is a given name from the Fula language. It is equivalent to the Arabic ''Sheikh''. People with this name include:
Given name
* Seku Amadu (1776–1845), also known as Sékou Amadou or Sheikh Amadu, founder of th ...
, praising him as Africa's greatest leader, and there received the
Order of Fidelity to the People
This is a comprehensive list of awards and honours bestowed upon the Cuban revolutionary and statesman Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (except things named after him).
Private awards
State decorations
Prizes of Cuba, other states, state insti ...
. He then went on a seven-week tour visiting leftist allies: Algeria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union, where he was given further awards. On each trip, he was eager to visit factory and farm workers, publicly praising their governments; privately, he urged the regimes to aid revolutionary movements elsewhere, particularly those fighting the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
.
In September 1973, he returned to
Algiers to attend the Fourth Summit of the
Non-Aligned Movement
The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum of 120 countries that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide.
The movement originated in the aftermath o ...
(NAM). Various NAM members were critical of Castro's attendance, claiming that Cuba was aligned to the
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist repub ...
and therefore should not be at the conference. At the conference he publicly broke off relations with Israel, citing its government's close relationship with the U.S. and its treatment of Palestinians during the
Israel–Palestine conflict. This earned Castro respect throughout the Arab world, in particular from the Libyan leader
Muammar Gaddafi, who became a friend and ally. As the
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by E ...
broke out in October 1973 between Israel and an Arab coalition led by Egypt and Syria, Cuba sent 4,000 troops to aid Syria. Leaving Algiers, Castro visited Iraq and
North Vietnam
North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...
.
Cuba's economy grew in 1974 as a result of high international sugar prices and new credits with Argentina, Canada, and parts of Western Europe. A number of Latin American states called for Cuba's re-admittance into the
Organization of American States (OAS), with the U.S. finally conceding in 1975 on
Henry Kissinger
Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presid ...
's advice. Cuba's government underwent a restructuring along Soviet lines, claiming that this would further democratization and decentralize power away from Castro. Officially announcing Cuba's identity as a
socialist state
A socialist state, socialist republic, or socialist country, sometimes referred to as a workers' state or workers' republic, is a sovereign state constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism. The term '' communist state'' is of ...
, the first National Congress of the Cuban Communist Party was held, and
a new constitution drafted that abolished the position of president and prime minister. Castro remained the dominant figure in governance, taking the presidency of the newly created
Council of State
A Council of State is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head o ...
and
Council of Ministers
A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...
, making him both
head of state
A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and l ...
and head of government.
Presidency
Foreign wars and NAM Presidency: 1975–1979
Castro considered Africa to be "the weakest link in the imperialist chain", and at the request of
Agostinho Neto
António Agostinho da Silva Neto (17 September 1922 – 10 September 1979) was an Angolan politician and poet. He served as the first president of Angola from 1975 to 1979, having led the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) ...
he ordered 230 military advisers into
Angola
, national_anthem = " Angola Avante"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capital = Luanda
, religion =
, religion_year = 2020
, religion_ref =
, coordina ...
in November 1975 to aid Neto's Marxist
MPLA
The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola ( pt, Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola, abbr. MPLA), for some years called the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola – Labour Party (), is an Angolan left-wing, social dem ...
in the
Angolan Civil War
The Angolan Civil War ( pt, Guerra Civil Angolana) was a civil war in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war immediately began after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. The war was ...
. When the U.S. and South Africa stepped up their support of the opposition
FLNA
Filamin A, alpha (FLNA) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''FLNA'' gene.
Function
Actin-binding protein, or filamin, is a 280-kD protein that crosslinks actin filaments into orthogonal networks in cortical cytoplasm and participate ...
and
UNITA
The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola ( pt, União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola, abbr. UNITA) is the second-largest political party in Angola. Founded in 1966, UNITA fought alongside the Popular Movement for ...
, Castro ordered a further 18,000 troops to Angola, which played a major role in forcing a South African and UNITA retreat. The decision to intervene in Angola has been a controversial one, all the more so as Castro's critics have charged that it was not his decision at all, contending that the Soviets ordered him to do so. Castro always maintained that he took the decision to launch Operation Carlota himself in response to an appeal from Neto and that the Soviets were in fact opposed to Cuban intervention in Angola, which took place over their opposition.
Traveling to Angola, Castro celebrated with Neto, Sékou Touré and Guinea-Bissaun President
Luís Cabral, where they agreed to support Mozambique's
Marxist–Leninist government
A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Comin ...
against
RENAMO
RENAMO (from the Portuguese , ) is a Mozambican political party and militant group. The party was founded with the active sponsorship of the Rhodesian Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) in May 1977 from anti-communist dissidents oppose ...
in the
Mozambican Civil War
The Mozambican Civil War ( pt, Guerra Civil Moçambicana) was a civil war fought in Mozambique from 1977 to 1992. Like many regional African conflicts during the late twentieth century, the Mozambican Civil War possessed local dynamics but was a ...
. In February, Castro visited Algeria and then Libya, where he spent ten days with Gaddafi and oversaw the establishment of the
Jamahariya system of governance, before attending talks with
the Marxist government of
South Yemen. From there he proceeded to Somalia, Tanzania, Mozambique and Angola where he was greeted by crowds as a hero for Cuba's role in opposing apartheid South Africa. Throughout much of Africa he was hailed as a friend to national liberation from foreign dominance. This was followed with visits to East Berlin and Moscow.
In 1977, the
Ogaden War broke out over the disputed
Ogaden region as Somalia invaded Ethiopia; although a former ally of Somali President
Siad Barre, Castro had warned him against such action, and Cuba sided with
Mengistu Haile Mariam
Mengistu Haile Mariam ( am, መንግሥቱ ኀይለ ማሪያም, pronunciation: ; born 21 May 1937) is an Ethiopian politician and former army officer who was the head of state of Ethiopia from 1977 to 1991 and General Secretary of the Wor ...
's Marxist government of Ethiopia. In a desperate attempt to stop the war, Castro had a summit with Barre where he proposed a federation of Ethiopia, Somalia, and South Yemen as an alternative to war. Barre who saw seizing the Ogaden as the first step towards creating a greater Somalia that would unite all of the Somalis into one state rejected the federation offer, and decided upon war. Castro sent troops under the command of General
Arnaldo Ochoa to aid the overwhelmed Ethiopian army. Mengistu's regime was barely hanging on by 1977, having lost one-third of its army in Eritrea at the time of the Somali invasion. The intervention of 17, 000 Cuban troops into the Ogaden was by all accounts decisive in altering a war that Ethiopia was on the brink of losing into a victory.
After forcing back the Somalis, Mengistu then ordered the Ethiopians to suppress the
Eritrean People's Liberation Front
The Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), colloquially known as Shabia, was an armed Marxist–Leninist organization that fought for the independence of Eritrea from Ethiopia. It emerged in 1970 as a far-left to left-wing nationalist group ...
, a measure Castro refused to support. Castro extended support to Latin American revolutionary movements, namely the
Sandinista National Liberation Front
The Sandinista National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto Cé ...
in its overthrow of the Nicaraguan rightist government of
Anastasio Somoza Debayle in July 1979. Castro's critics accused the government of wasting Cuban lives in these military endeavors; the anti-Castro
Center for a Free Cuba has claimed that an estimated 14,000 Cubans were killed in foreign Cuban military actions. When American critics claimed that Castro had no right to interfere in these nations, he countered that Cuba had been invited into them, pointing out the U.S.' own involvement in various foreign nations. Between 1979 and 1991 about 370, 000 Cuban troops together with 50, 000 Cuban civilians (mostly teachers and doctors) served in Angola, representing about 5% of Cuba's population.
The Cuban intervention in Angola was envisioned as a short-term commitment, but the Angolan government used the profits from the oil industry to subsidize Cuba's economy, making Cuba as economically dependent upon Angola as Angola was militarily dependent upon Cuba.
In the late 1970s, Cuba's relations with North American states improved during the period with Mexican President
Luis Echeverría
Luis Echeverría Álvarez (; 17 January 1922 – 8 July 2022) was a Mexican lawyer, academic, and politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who served as the 57th president of Mexico from 1970 to 1976. Previously ...
, Canadian Prime Minister
Pierre Trudeau, and U.S. President
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1 ...
in power. Carter continued criticizing Cuba's human rights abuses, but adopted a respectful approach which gained Castro's attention. Considering Carter well-meaning and sincere, Castro freed certain political prisoners and allowed some Cuban exiles to visit relatives on the island, hoping that in turn Carter would abolish the economic embargo and stop CIA support for militant dissidents. Conversely, his relationship with China declined, as he accused
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. After CCP ...
's Chinese government of betraying their revolutionary principles by initiating trade links with the U.S. and
attacking Vietnam. In 1979, the Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was held in Havana, where Castro was selected as NAM president, a position he held until 1982. In his capacity as both president of the NAM and of Cuba he appeared at the United Nations General Assembly in October 1979 and gave a speech on the disparity between the world's rich and poor. His speech was greeted with much applause from other world leaders, though his standing in NAM was damaged by Cuba's refusal to condemn the
Soviet intervention in Afghanistan
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
.
Reagan and Gorbachev: 1980–1991
![Fidel Castro, Havana, 1978 (9609361)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Fidel_Castro%2C_Havana%2C_1978_%289609361%29.jpg)
By the 1980s, Cuba's economy was again in trouble, following a decline in the market price of sugar and 1979's decimated harvest. For the first time, unemployment became a serious problem in Castro's Cuba, with the government sending unemployed youth to other countries, primarily East Germany, to work there. Desperate for money, Cuba's government secretly sold off paintings from national collections and illicitly traded for U.S. electronic goods through Panama. Increasing numbers of Cubans fled to Florida, but were labelled "scum" and "
lumpen" by Castro and his CDR supporters. In one incident, 10,000 Cubans stormed the Peruvian Embassy requesting asylum, and so the U.S. agreed that it would accept 3,500 refugees. Castro conceded that those who wanted to leave could do so from Mariel port. In what was known as the
Mariel boatlift
The Mariel boatlift () was a mass emigration of Cubans who traveled from Cuba's Mariel Harbor to the United States between 15 April and 31 October 1980. The term "" (plural "Marielitos") is used to refer to these refugees in both Spanish and E ...
, hundreds of boats arrived from the U.S., leading to a mass exodus of 120,000; Castro's government took advantage of the situation by loading criminals, the mentally ill, and homosexuals onto the boats destined for Florida. The event destabilized Carter's administration, and later, in 1980,
Ronald Reagan was elected U.S. president.
Reagan's administration adopted a hard-line approach against Castro, making its desire to overthrow his regime clear. In late 1981, Castro publicly accused the U.S. of biological warfare against Cuba by orchestrating a
dengue fever epidemic. Cuba's economy became even more dependent on Soviet aid, with Soviet subsidies (mainly in the form of supplies of low-cost oil and voluntarily buying Cuban sugar at inflated prices) averaging $4–5 billion a year by the late 1980s. This accounted for 30–38% of the country's entire GDP. Soviet economic assistance had not helped Cuba's long-term growth prospects by promoting diversification or sustainability. Although described as a "relatively highly developed Latin American export economy" in 1959 and the early 1960s, Cuba's basic economic structure changed very little between then and the 1980s. Tobacco products such as cigars and cigarettes were the only manufactured products among Cuba's leading exports, and even these are produced by a pre-industrial process. The Cuban economy remained highly inefficient and over-specialized in a few highly subsidized commodities provided by the Soviet bloc countries.
Although despising Argentina's National Reorganization Process, right-wing military junta, Castro supported them in the 1982 Falklands War against Britain and offered military aid to the Argentinians. Castro supported the leftist New Jewel Movement that seized power in
Grenada in 1979, befriending Grenadine President Maurice Bishop and sending doctors, teachers, and technicians to aid the country's development. When Bishop was executed in a Soviet-backed coup by hard-line Marxist Bernard Coard in October 1983, Castro condemned the killing but cautiously retained support for Grenada's government. However, the U.S. used the coup as a basis for Invasion of Grenada (1983), invading the island. Cuban soldiers died in the conflict, with Castro denouncing the invasion and comparing the U.S. to Nazi Germany. In a July 1983 speech marking the 30th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, Castro condemned Reagan's administration as a "reactionary, extremist clique" who were waging an "openly warmongering and fascist foreign policy". Castro feared a CIA activities in Nicaragua, U.S. invasion of Nicaragua and sent Ochoa to train the governing Sandinista National Liberation Front, Sandinistas in guerrilla warfare, but received little support from the USSR.
In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became Secretary-General of the Soviet Communist Party; a reformer, he implemented measures to increase freedom of the press (''glasnost'') and economic decentralization (''perestroika'') in an attempt to strengthen socialism. Like many orthodox Marxist critics, Castro feared that the reforms would weaken the socialist state and allow capitalist elements to regain control. Gorbachev conceded to U.S. demands to reduce support for Cuba, with Soviet-Cuban relations deteriorating. On medical advice given him in October 1985, Castro gave up regularly smoking Cuban cigars, helping to set an example for the rest of the populace. Castro became passionate in his denunciation of the Third World debt problem, arguing that the Third World would never escape the debt that First World banks and governments imposed upon it. In 1985, Havana hosted five international conferences on the world debt problem.
![Lobito Lighthouse 1995](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Lobito_Lighthouse_1995.jpg)
By November 1987, Castro began spending more time on the
Angolan Civil War
The Angolan Civil War ( pt, Guerra Civil Angolana) was a civil war in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war immediately began after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. The war was ...
, in which the Marxist MPLA government had fallen into retreat. Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos successfully appealed for more Cuban troops, with Castro later admitting that he devoted more time to Angola than to the domestic situation, believing that a victory would lead to the collapse of apartheid. In response to the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, siege of Cuito Cuanavale in 1987–1988 by South African-UNITA forces, Castro sent an additional 12,000 Cuban Army troops to Angola in late 1987. From afar in Havana, Castro was closely involved in the decision-making about the defense of Cuito Cuanavle and came into conflict with Ochoa, whom he criticized for almost losing Cuito Cuanavle to a South African-UNITA assault on 13 January 1988 despite warning for almost two months prior that such an attack was coming. On 30 January 1988, Ochoa was summoned to a meeting with Castro in Havana where he was told that Cuito Cuanavale must not fall and to execute Castro's plans for a pull-back to more defensible positions over the objections of the Angolans. The Cuban troops played a decisive role in the relief of Cuito Cuanavale, breaking the siege in March 1988, which led to the withdrawal of most of the South African troops from Angola. Cuban propaganda turned the siege of Cuito Cuanavle into a decisive victory that changed the course of African history and Castro awarded 82 soldiers medals of the newly created Medal of Merit for the Defense of Cuito Cuanavle on 1 April 1988. Tensions were increased with the Cubans advancing close to the border of Namibia, which led to warnings from the South African government that they considered this an extremely unfriendly act, causing South Africa to mobilize and call up its reserves. In the spring of 1988, the intensity of South African-Cuban fighting drastically increased with both sides taking heavy losses.
The prospect of an all-out Cuban-South African war served to concentrate minds in both Moscow and Washington and led to an increased push for a diplomatic solution to the Angolan war. The cost of Cuba's wars in Africa were paid for with Soviet subsidies at a time when the Soviet economy was badly hurt by low oil prices while the apartheid government of South Africa had by the 1980s become a very awkward American ally as much of the American population, especially black Americans, objected to apartheid. From the viewpoint of both Moscow and Washington, having both Cuba and South Africa disengage in Angola was the best possible outcome. The low oil prices of the 1980s had also changed the Angolan attitude about subsidizing the Cuban economy as dos Santos found the promises made in the 1970s when oil prices were high to be a serious drain upon Angola's economy in the 1980s.
South African whites were vastly outnumbered by South African blacks, and accordingly the South African Army could not take heavy losses with its white troops as that would fatally weaken the ability of the South African state to uphold apartheid. The Cubans had also taken heavy losses while the increasing difficult relations with dos Santos who become less generous in subsidizing the Cuban economy suggested that such losses were not worth the cost. Gorbachev called for a negotiated end to the conflict and in 1988 organized a quadripartite talks between the USSR, U.S., Cuba and South Africa; they agreed that all foreign troops would pull out of Angola while South Africa agreed to grant independence to Namibia. Castro was angered by Gorbachev's approach, believing that he was abandoning the plight of the world's poor in favor of détente.
When Gorbachev visited Cuba in April 1989, he informed Castro that ''perestroika'' meant an end to subsidies for Cuba. Ignoring calls for liberalization in accordance with the Soviet example, Castro continued to clamp down on internal dissidents and in particular kept tabs on the military, the primary threat to the government. A number of senior military officers, including Ochoa and Tony de la Guardia, were investigated for corruption and complicity in cocaine smuggling, tried, and executed in 1989, despite calls for leniency. In Eastern Europe, socialist governments fell to capitalist reformers between 1989 and 1991 and many Western observers expected the same in Cuba. Increasingly isolated, Cuba improved relations with Manuel Noriega's right-wing government in Panama – despite Castro's personal hatred of Noriega – but it was overthrown in a U.S. invasion in December 1989. In February 1990, Castro's allies in Nicaragua, President Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas, were defeated by the U.S.-funded National Opposition Union in an election. With the collapse of the Soviet bloc, the U.S. secured a majority vote for a resolution condemning Cuba's human rights violations at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland. Cuba asserted that this was a manifestation of U.S. hegemony, and refused to allow an investigative delegation to enter the country.
Special Period: 1992–2000
![Cuba](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Cuba.FidelCastro.02.jpg)
With favourable trade from the Soviet bloc ended, Castro publicly declared that Cuba was entering a "Special Period in Time of Peace". Petrol rations were dramatically reduced, Chinese bicycles were imported to replace cars, and factories performing non-essential tasks were shut down. Oxen began to replace tractors, firewood began being used for cooking and electricity cuts were introduced that lasted 16 hours a day. Castro admitted that Cuba faced the worst situation short of open war, and that the country might have to resort to subsistence farming. By 1992, Cuba's economy had declined by over 40% in under two years, with major food shortages, widespread malnutrition and a lack of basic goods. Castro hoped for a restoration of Marxism–Leninism in the USSR, but refrained from backing the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, 1991 coup in that country. When Gorbachev regained control, Cuba-Soviet relations deteriorated further and Soviet troops were withdrawn in September 1991. In December, the Dissolution of the Soviet Union, Soviet Union was officially dissolved as Boris Yeltsin abolished the Soviet Communist Party and introducing a capitalist multiparty democracy. Yeltsin despised Castro and developed links with the Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation. Castro tried improving relations with the capitalist nations. He welcomed Western politicians and investors to Cuba, befriended Manuel Fraga and took a particular interest in Margaret Thatcher's policies in the UK, believing that Cuban socialism could learn from her emphasis on low taxation and personal initiative. He ceased support for foreign militants, refrained from praising FARC on a 1994 visit to Colombia and called for a negotiated settlement between the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, Zapatistas and Mexican government in 1995. Publicly, he presented himself as a moderate on the world stage.
In 1991, Havana 1991 Pan American Games, hosted the Pan American Games, which involved construction of Estadio Panamericano, Havana, a stadium and accommodation for the athletes; Castro admitted that it was an expensive error, but it was a success for Cuba's government. Crowds regularly shouted "Fidel! Fidel!" in front of foreign journalists, while Cuba became the first Latin American nation to beat the U.S. to the top of the gold-medal table. Support for Castro remained strong, and although there were small anti-government demonstrations, the Cuban opposition rejected the exile community's calls for an armed uprising. In August 1994, Havana witnessed the largest anti-Castro demonstration in Cuban history, as 200 to 300 young men threw stones at police, demanding that they be allowed to emigrate to Miami. A larger pro-Castro crowd confronted them, who were joined by Castro; he informed media that the men were anti-socials misled by the U.S. The protests dispersed with no recorded injuries. Fearing that dissident groups would invade, the government organised the "War of All the People" defense strategy, planning a widespread guerrilla warfare campaign, and the unemployed were given jobs building a network of bunkers and tunnels across the country.
Castro believed in the need for reform if Cuban socialism was to survive in a world now dominated by capitalist free markets. In October 1991, the Fourth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party was held in Santiago, at which a number of important changes to the government were announced. Castro would step down as head of government, to be replaced by the much younger Carlos Lage, although Castro would remain the head of the Communist Party and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Many older members of government were to be retired and replaced by their younger counterparts. A number of economic changes were proposed, and subsequently put to a national referendum. Free farmers' markets and small-scale private enterprises would be legalized in an attempt to stimulate economic growth, while U.S. dollars were also made legal tender. Certain restrictions on emigration were eased, allowing more discontented Cuban citizens to move to the United States. Further democratization was to be brought in by having the National Assembly's members elected directly by the people, rather than through municipal and provincial assemblies. Castro welcomed debate between proponents and opponents of the Cuban economic reforms, economics reforms—although over time he began to increasingly sympathise with the opponent's positions, arguing that such reforms must be delayed.
Castro's government diversified its economy into biotechnology and tourism in Cuba, tourism, the latter outstripping Cuba's sugar industry as its primary source of revenue in 1995. The arrival of thousands of Mexican and Spanish tourists led to increasing numbers of Cubans turning to prostitution; officially illegal, Castro refrained from cracking down on prostitution in Cuba, fearing a political backlash. Economic hardship led many Cubans toward religion, both in the form of Roman Catholicism and Santería. Although long thinking religious belief to be backward, Castro softened his approach to religious institutions and religious people were permitted for the first time to join the Communist Party. Although he viewed the Roman Catholic Church as a reactionary, pro-capitalist institution, Castro organized a visit to Cuba by Pope John Paul II for January 1998; it strengthened the position of both the Cuban Church and Castro's government.
In the early 1990s Castro embraced environmentalism, campaigning against global warming and the waste of natural resources, and accusing the U.S. of being the world's primary polluter. In 1994 a ministry dedicated to the environment was established, and new laws established in 1997 that promoted awareness of environmental issues throughout Cuba and stressed the sustainable use of natural resources. By 2006, Cuba was the world's only nation which met the United Nations Development Programme's definition of sustainable development, with an ecological footprint of less than 1.8 hectares per capita and a Human Development Index of over 0.8. Castro also became a proponent of the
anti-globalization movement, criticizing U.S. global hegemony and the control exerted by multinational corporation, multinationals. Castro maintained his strong stance Foreign relations of South Africa during apartheid, against apartheid, and at the 26 July celebrations in 1991, he was joined onstage by Nelson Mandela, recently released from prison. Mandela praised Cuba's involvement in battling South Africa during the
Angolan Civil War
The Angolan Civil War ( pt, Guerra Civil Angolana) was a civil war in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war immediately began after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. The war was ...
and thanked Castro personally. Castro later attended Mandela's inauguration as President of South Africa in 1994. In 2001, Castro attended the Conference Against Racism in South Africa at which he lectured on the global spread of racial stereotypes through U.S. film.
Pink tide: 2000–2006
![Lula anda Castro9822](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Lula_anda_Castro9822.jpeg)
Mired in economic problems, Cuba was aided by 1998 Venezuelan presidential election, the election of socialist and anti-imperialist
Hugo Chávez to the Venezuelan Presidency in 1999. Castro and Chávez developed a close friendship, with the former acting as a mentor and father-figure to the latter, and together they built an alliance that had repercussions throughout Latin America. In 2000, they signed an agreement through which Cuba would send 20,000 medics to Venezuela, in return receiving 53,000 barrels of oil per day at preferential rates; in 2004, this trade was stepped up, with Cuba sending 40,000 medics and Venezuela providing 90,000 barrels a day. That same year, Castro initiated ''Misión Milagro'', a joint medical project which aimed to provide free eye operations on 300,000 individuals from each nation. The alliance boosted the Cuban economy, and in May 2005 Castro doubled the minimum wage for 1.6 million workers, raised pensions, and delivered new kitchen appliances to Cuba's poorest residents. Some economic problems remained; in 2004, Castro shut down 118 factories, including steel plants, sugar mills and paper processors to compensate for a critical shortage of fuel. In September 2005, Castro established a group of medical professionals, known as the Henry Reeve Brigade, with the mission of international medical solidarity. The group were sent throughout the world to carry out humanitarian missions on behalf of the Cuban government.
Cuba and Venezuela were the founding members of the ALBA, Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA). ALBA sought to redistribute wealth evenly throughout member countries, to protect the region's agriculture, and to oppose economic liberalization and privatization. ALBA's origins lay in a December 2004 agreement signed between the two countries, and was formalized through a People's Trade Agreement also signed by Evo Morales' Bolivia in April 2006. Castro had also been calling for greater Caribbean integration since the late 1990s, saying that only strengthened cooperation between Caribbean countries would prevent their domination by rich nations in a global economy. Cuba has opened four additional embassies in the Caribbean Community including: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Suriname, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. This development makes Cuba the only country to have embassies in all independent countries of the Caribbean Community.
![Fidel Castro 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Fidel_Castro_1._Mai_2005_bei_Kundgebung.jpg)
In contrast to the improved relations between Cuba and a number of leftist Latin American states, in 2004 it broke off diplomatic ties with Panama after centrist President Mireya Moscoso pardoned four Cuban exiles accused of attempting to assassinate Castro in 2000. Diplomatic ties were reinstalled in 2005 following the election of leftist President Martín Torrijos.
Castro's improving relations across Latin America were accompanied by continuing animosity towards the U.S. However, after massive damage caused by Hurricane Michelle in 2001, Castro successfully proposed a one-time cash purchase of food from the U.S. while declining its government's offer of humanitarian aid. Castro expressed solidarity with the U.S. following the 2001 September 11 attacks, condemning Al-Qaeda and offering Cuban airports for the emergency diversion of any U.S. planes. He recognized that the attacks would make U.S. foreign policy more aggressive, which he believed was counter-productive. Castro criticized the 2003 invasion of Iraq, saying that the U.S.-led war had imposed an international "law of the jungle".
Meanwhile, in 1998, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien arrived in Cuba to meet Castro and highlight their close ties. He was the first Canadian government leader to visit the island since Pierre Trudeau was in Havana in 1976. In 2002, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter visited Cuba, where he highlighted the lack of civil liberties in the country and urged the government to pay attention to the Varela Project of Oswaldo Payá.
Final years
Stepping down: 2006–2008
Castro underwent surgery for intestinal bleeding, and on 31 July 2006, 2006–2008 Cuban transfer of presidential duties, delegated his presidential duties to Raúl Castro. In February 2007, Raúl announced that Fidel's health was improving and that he was taking part in important issues of government. Later that month, Fidel called into Hugo Chávez's radio show ''Aló Presidente''. On 21 April, Castro met Wu Guanzheng of the Chinese Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China, Politburo Standing member, with Chávez visiting in August, and Morales in September. That month, the Non-Aligned Movement held its 14th Summit in Havana, there agreeing to appoint Castro as the organisation's president for a year's term.
Commenting on Castro's recovery, U.S. President George W. Bush said: "One day the good Lord will take Fidel Castro away." Hearing about this, the atheist Castro replied: "Now I understand why I survived Bush's plans and the plans of other presidents who ordered my assassination: the good Lord protected me." The quote was picked up on by the world's media.
In a February 2008 letter, Castro announced that he would not accept the positions of President of the Council of State and Commander in Chief at that month's National Assembly meetings, remarking, "It would betray my conscience to take up a responsibility that requires mobility and total devotion, that I am not in a physical condition to offer". On 24 February 2008, the National Assembly of People's Power unanimously voted Raúl as president. Describing his brother as "not substitutable", Raúl proposed that Fidel continue to be consulted on matters of great importance, a motion unanimously approved by the 597 National Assembly members.
Retirement and final years: 2008–2016
Following his retirement, Castro's health deteriorated; international press speculated that he had diverticulitis, but Cuba's government refused to corroborate this.
He continued to interact with the Cuban people, published an opinion column titled "Reflections" in ''Granma'', used a Twitter account, and gave occasional public lectures.
In January 2009 Castro asked Cubans not to worry about his lack of recent news columns and failing health, and not to be disturbed by his future death. He continued meeting foreign leaders and dignitaries, and that month photographs were released of Castro's meeting with Argentine President Cristina Fernández.
![Enrique Peña Nieto y Fidel Castro](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Enrique_Pe%C3%B1a_Nieto_y_Fidel_Castro.jpg)
In July 2010, he made his first public appearance since falling ill, greeting science center workers and giving a television interview to ''Mesa Redonda Internacional, Mesa Redonda'' in which he discussed U.S. tensions with Iran and North Korea. On 7 August 2010, Castro gave his first speech to the
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...
in four years, urging the U.S. not to take military actions against those nations and warning of a nuclear holocaust. When asked whether Castro may be re-entering government, culture minister Abel Prieto told the BBC, "I think that he has always been in Cuba's political life but he is not in the government ... He has been very careful about that. His big battle is international affairs."
On 19 April 2011, Castro resigned from the Communist Party central committee, thus stepping down as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, First Secretary. Raúl was selected as his successor. Now without any official role in the country's government, he took on the role of an elder leader, statesman. In March 2011, Castro condemned the 2011 military intervention in Libya, NATO-led military intervention in Libya. In March 2012, Pope Benedict XVI visited Cuba for three days, during which time he briefly met with Castro despite the Pope's vocal opposition to Cuba's government.
Later that year it was revealed that along with Hugo Chávez, Castro had played a significant behind-the-scenes role in orchestrating peace talks between the Colombian government and the far left Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC guerrilla movement to end the conflict which had raged since 1964. During the North Korea crisis (2013), North Korea crisis of 2013, he urged both the North Korean and U.S. governments to show restraint. Calling the situation "incredible and absurd", he maintained that war would not benefit either side, and that it represented "one of the gravest risks of nuclear war" since the Cuban missile crisis.
In December 2014, Castro was awarded the Chinese Confucius Peace Prize for seeking peaceful solutions to his nation's conflict with the U.S. and for his post-retirement efforts to prevent nuclear war. In January 2015, he publicly commented on the "Cuban Thaw", an increased normalization between Cuba-U.S. relations, by stating that while it was a positive move for establishing peace in the region, he mistrusted the U.S. government. He did not meet with U.S. President Barack Obama on the latter's visit to Cuba in March 2016, although sent him a letter stating that Cuba "has no need of gifts from the empire". That April, he gave his most extensive public appearance in many years when addressing the Communist Party. Highlighting that he was soon to turn 90 years old, he noted that he would die in the near future but urged those assembled to retain their communist ideals. In September 2016, Castro was visited at his Havana home by the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, and later that month was visited by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe. In late October 2016, Castro met with the Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who became one of the last foreign leaders to meet him.
Death
![Fidel Castro's funeral procession](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Fidel_Castro%27s_funeral_procession.jpg)
Castro died in Havana on the night of 25 November 2016.
The cause of death was not disclosed. His brother, President
Raúl Castro, confirmed the news in a brief speech: "The commander in chief of the Cuban revolution died at 22:29 [Eastern Time Zone, EST] this evening."
His death came 9 months after his older brother Ramón Castro Ruz, Ramón died at the age of 91 in February. Fidel Castro was cremation, cremated the next day.
A funeral procession travelled along the island's Carretera Central (Cuba), central highway from Havana to Santiago de Cuba, tracing in reverse, the route of the "Freedom Caravan" of January 1959, and after nine days of public mourning, his ashes were entombed in the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in Santiago de Cuba.
Ideology
Castro proclaimed himself to be "a Socialist, a
Marxist, and a Leninist", and publicly identified as a
Marxist–Leninist
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialect ...
from December 1961 onward. As a Marxist, Castro sought to transform Cuba from a capitalist state which was dominated by foreign imperialism to a socialist society and ultimately to a communist society. Influenced by Guevara, he suggested that Cuba could evade most stages of socialism and progress straight to communism. The Cuban Revolution nevertheless did not meet the Marxist assumption that socialism would be achieved through proletariat revolution, for most of the forces involved in Batista's overthrow were led by members of the Cuban middle-class. According to Castro, a country could be regarded as socialist if its means of production were controlled by the state. In this way, his understanding of socialism was less about who controlled power in a country and more about the method of distribution.
Castro's government was also nationalistic, with Castro declaring, "We are not only Marxist-Leninists, but also nationalists and patriots". In this it drew upon a longstanding tradition of Cuban nationalism. Castro biographer Sebastian Balfour noted that "the vein of moral regeneration and voluntarism that runs through" Castro's thought owes far more to "Hispanic nationalism" than European socialism or Marxism–Leninism. Historian Richard Gott remarked that one of the keys to Castro's success was his ability to use the "twin themes of socialism and nationalism" and keep them "endlessly in play". Castro described
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
and Cuban nationalist
José Martí
José Julián Martí Pérez (; January 28, 1853 – May 19, 1895) was a Cuban nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher, who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in the libera ...
as his main political influences, although Gott believed that Martí ultimately remained more important than Marx in Castro's politics. Castro described Martí's political ideas as "a philosophy of independence and an exceptional humanistic philosophy", and his supporters and apologists repeatedly claimed that there were great similarities between the two figures.
Biographer Volka Skierka described Castro's government as a "highly individual, socialist-nationalist ''fidelista'' system", with Theodore Draper terming his approach "Castroism", viewing it as a blend of European socialism with the Latin American revolutionary tradition.
Political scientist Paul C. Sondrol has described Castro's approach to politics as "totalitarian utopianism", with a style of leadership that drew upon the wider Latin American phenomenon of the ''
caudillo
A ''caudillo'' ( , ; osp, cabdillo, from Latin , diminutive of ''caput'' "head") is a type of personalist leader wielding military and political power. There is no precise definition of ''caudillo'', which is often used interchangeably with " ...
''. He drew inspiration from the wider Latin American anti-imperialist movements of the 1930s and 1940s, including Argentina's Juan Perón, Perón and Guatemala's Jacobo Árbenz. Castro took a relatively socially conservative stance on many issues, opposing drug use, gambling, and prostitution, which he viewed as moral evils. Instead, he advocated hard work, family values, integrity, and self-discipline. Although his government repressed homosexual activity for decades, later in his life he took responsibility for this persecution, regretting it as a "great injustice", as he himself put it.
Personal and public life
Personality
Juan Reynaldo Sánchez, Castro's former bodyguard, detailed much of his personal and private life in his book ''The Double Life of Fidel Castro''. He described Castro as "Nothing ordinary about him at all, he is unique, special, and different". He profiled him as an egocentric who loved being the center of attention, and with his almost electric charisma, grabbing the attention of the people around him. He was also extremely manipulative; with his formidable intelligence, he was capable of manipulating a person or a group of people without much difficulty. In addition, he was repetitive and obsessive. In discussions with his colleagues or foreigners, he would repeat the same things over again on a continuous loop until they were convinced he was right. It was absolutely impossible to contradict him on any subject whatsoever. Anyone who attempted to convince him that he was wrong or even making a suggestion that it could be improved slightly was making a "fatal error". Fidel would then make a mental mark of the individual as an "idiot", and would wait for the right time to retaliate against them. Nobody, not even Raúl was exempt from this; despite being the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (Cuba), minister of the armed forces, he would bring seemingly minor military decisions to Castro for his final approval in order to avoid inadvertently contradicting him. Sánchez believed that General
Arnaldo Ochoa's downfall was significantly related to his willingness to contradict Fidel's orders in Angola.
Biographer Leycester Coltman described Castro as "fiercely hard-working, dedicated, loyal ... generous and magnanimous" but noted that he could be "vindictive and unforgiving". He asserted that Castro "always had a keen sense of humor and could laugh at himself" but could equally be "a bad loser" who would act with "ferocious rage if he thought that he was being humiliated". Publicly he was known for throwing tantrums, and could make "snap judgements" which he refused to back down from. In private though, Castro was actually skilled at keeping his anger in check and not allowing it to affect his judgement, simply becoming cold and withdrawn; Sánchez stated that in 17 years he had only seen Castro explode in anger twice, one upon being informed of his daughter Alina's defection in 1993.
Castro was known for working long hours; he primarily woke up late – rarely before 10 or 11 am – and started his working day around noon, and would work until late at night, often only going to bed at 3 or 4 am. He preferred to meet foreign diplomats in these early hours, believing that they would be tired and he could gain the upper hand in negotiations. Castro liked to meet with ordinary citizens, both in Cuba and abroad, but took a particularly paternal attitude toward Cubans, treating them as if "they were a part of his own giant family". British historian Alex von Tunzelmann commented that "though ruthless, [Castro] was a patriot, a man with a profound sense that it was his mission to save the Cuban people". Political scientist Paul C. Sondrol characterized Castro as "quintessentially totalitarianism, totalitarian in his charismatic appeal, utopian functional role and public, transformative utilisation of power".
![Fidel castro angel 1954](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Fidel_castro_angel_1954.jpg)
Balfour described Castro as having a "voracity for knowledge" and "elephantine memory" that allowed him to speak for hours on a variety of different subjects. His hero was Alexander the Great, whose Spanish equivalent ''Alejandro'' he adopted as his ''nom de guerre''. Castro was a voracious reader; amongst his favorite authors were Ernest Hemingway, Franz Kafka, William Shakespeare, and Maxim Gorky, and he named ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' as his favorite book, committing several portions of the novel to memory and even utilizing some of its lessons as a guerilla fighter. He enjoyed art and photography and was known as a patron of both within Cuba but was uninterested in music and disliked dancing. He was also an avid fan of cinema, particularly Soviet films. His favorite film was the five-hour long 1967 adaption of Leo Tolstoy's ''War and Peace (film series), War and Peace''. Castro had a lifelong passion, almost obsession, with cows and, starting in 1966, with bovine genetics and breeding. State media frequently published details of his attempts to breed cows with increased milk yields. This interest reached its peak in 1982 when a cow that Fidel had bred, "Ubre Blanca", broke the Guinness World Record for producing 29 gallons of milk live on national television. She was promoted into a national celebrity and propaganda tool, and when the cow died in 1985, ''Granma'' published an official obituary for her on the front page, and the postal service issued stamps in her honor as well.
Fidel Castro's religious beliefs have been a matter of some debate; he was baptized and raised as a Roman Catholic. He criticized use of the Bible to justify the oppression of women and Africans, but commented that Christianity exhibited "a group of very humane precepts" which gave the world "ethical values" and a "sense of social justice", relating, "If people call me Christian, not from the standpoint of religion but from the standpoint of social vision, I declare that I am a Christian." During a visit of Jesse Jackson, Castro accompanied him to a Methodist Church service where he even spoke from the pulpit with a Bible before him, an event that marked a beginning of increased openness towards Christianity in Cuba. He promoted the idea that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ was a communist, citing the Feeding the multitude, feeding of the 5,000 and the story of Jesus and the rich young man as evidence.
Public image
![Castro sign](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Castro_sign.jpg)
Within Cuba, Castro was primarily referred to by his official military title ''Comandante El Jefe''; he was usually addressed as ''Comandante'' (The Commander) in general discourse as well as in person but could also be addressed as ''El Jefe'' (the Chief) in the third person, particularly within the party and military command. Castro was often nicknamed "''El Caballo''" ("The Horse"), a label attributed to Cuban entertainer Benny Moré which alludes to Castro's well known philandering during the 1950s and early 1960s.
With his wikt:logorrheic, logorrheic oratorical abilities and profound charisma, Castro was extremely skilled at the art of manipulation and deception, easily whipping up his audience and even entire segments of the population into support for him. Large throngs of supporters gathered to cheer at Castro's fiery speeches, which typically lasted for hours (even outdoors in inclement weather) and without the use of written notes. During speeches, Castro regularly cited reports and books he had read on a wide variety of subjects, including military matters, plant cultivation, filmmaking, and chess strategies. Officially, the Cuban government did maintain a cult of personality, but unlike other Soviet-era leaders and his allies, it was less widespread and took on a more subtle and discreet form. There were no statues or large portraits of him but rather signs with "thoughts" of the ''Comandante''. Although his popularity among segments of the Cuban populace nevertheless led to one developing without the government's involvement and would be used to judge each individual's devotion to his "revolutionary cause" (judged by their contribution to the revolution). Indeed, by 2006 Castro's image could frequently be found in Cuban stores, classrooms, taxicabs, and on national television. In private, however, Castro hated such idolization campaigns and believed that he had intellectual ascendancy over leaders who engaged in such behavior, such as his friend Kim Il-sung of North Korea whose cult of personality he considered excessive, outlandish, and unreasonable.
![Fidel Castro 2012](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Fidel_Castro_2012.jpg)
He gave no importance to his appearance or clothing; for 37 years, he wore only his trademark olive-green military fatigues or the standard dress uniform for formal events and special occasions, emphasizing his role as the perpetual revolutionary, but in the mid-1990s began wearing dark civilian suits and ''guayabera'' in public. At over tall with a few inches added from his combat boots, Castro usually towered over most foreign leaders he met with, giving him a dominating presence in any room or photo that was taken, which he used to his advantage (for comparison, Abraham Lincoln and Charles De Gaulle, both well known for their tall heights, stood at 6'4 and 6'5 respectively). Until his uprising against Batista, Castro typically kept a pencil-thin moustache along with combed back hair, typical of Upper-class Cuban men in the 1950s but grew out both during his years as a guerilla fighter and retaining them afterwards. Castro also disliked worrying about his appearance and hated shaving, making the beard and uniform all the more convenient for him. His uniform was also kept simple, he never wore any medals or decorations and his only marker of rank was the ''Comandante El Jefe'' insignia stitched on the shoulder straps. Until the 1990s, he wore combat boots, but due to orthopedic issues, abandoned them for sneakers and tennis shoes instead. Around his waist, he often carried a 9mm Browning pistol in a brown leather holster with an additional three clips. His personal weapon of choice was a 7.62 Kalashnikov AKM which Castro occasionally carried with him during the 1960s but was later kept stored in a suitcase carried by one of the members of his escort or kept placed between his feet while driving along with five cartridges; he frequently used it during shooting exercises and practice. Castro had a lifelong love of guns and was considered an expert sharpshooter, impressing foreign visitors and even holding up against members of his own elite bodyguards who engaged in frequent competition with him.
Castro's most iconic public feature eventually became the Cuban cigar that he smoked on a daily basis. Introduced to it by his father at the age of 15, Castro continued the habit for almost 44 years with the exception of a brief period during the 1950s while a guerilla fighter and boycotting against Batista linked tobacco firms.
Castro claimed that he quit around 1985 during an anti-smoking campaign promoted by the Communist Party. Sánchez disputes this, saying that his doctor had Castro reduce his cigar usage starting in 1980 and quit entirely in 1983 after a cancerous ulcer was found in his intestine. Prior to the Revolution, Castro smoked various brands including Romeo y Julieta (cigar), Romeo y Julieta Churchill, H. Upmann, Bauza, and Partagás (cigar brand), Partagás. In the early 1960s, Castro saw one of his bodyguards smoking a noticeably aromatic but unbranded cigar. Castro and the bodyguard located the cigar maker, Eduardo Ribera, who agreed to establish the El Laguito Factory and branded the cigars as Cohiba (cigar brand), Cohiba which became Castro's signature brand and elevating its profile internationally.
Initially restricted for his own private use and other members of the Politburo, it was later presented as diplomatic gifts for allied countries and friends of Castro, most notably seen smoked by Che Guevara, Josip Broz Tito, Houari Boumédiène, Sukarno, and Saddam Hussein.
Lifestyle
Castro's primary residence was at ''Punto Cero'', a large and vegetative estate approximately 6 km from the ''Palacio de la Revolution'' in the Siboney neighborhood. The main house is a L-Shaped two-story family mansion with a 600-square-yard footprint, 50-foot-long swimming pool, six greenhouses providing fruit and vegetables for Fidel and Raúl's families as well as their bodyguard units, and a large lawn with free-range chickens and cows. Close by is a second two-story building used to house the bodyguards and the domestic staff. The house itself was decorated in a classical Caribbean style, with local wicker and wood furniture, porcelain plates, watercolor paintings, and art books. Sánchez described the estate as naturally beautiful and tastefully decorated, and while considered luxurious for the average Cuban, was not lavish or over-the-top compared to the residences of the Somoza family, Somoza clan or the Kim dynasty (North Korea), Kim dynasty of North Korea. Raúl and Vilma Espín, Vilma's house ''La Rinconada'' is located close by on 222nd street. Raúl usually hosted large family barbecues on Sundays where Fidel would sometimes come, giving his extended family, sisters, and his elder brother Ramón a rare opportunity to see him. Next to ''Punto Cero'' is ''Unit 160'' which was the base of Fidel's bodyguard units. The base was over five acres large and surrounded by high walls, essentially a "city within a city" consisting of support personnel for transportation, communications, electronics, food, and an extensive armory of Kalashnikovs, Makarovs, and Browning's. Members of that unit also assisted in Fidel's passion for Bovine breeding and a stable was kept for some of Fidel's most prized cows.
In addition to "Punto Cero", Castro had 5 other residences in Havana: ''Casa Cojimar'', his initial home after 1959 but disused by the 1970s; a house on 160th Street near the Playa district; ''Casa Carbonell'', maintained by Cuban Intelligence for his covert meetings with representatives of foreign groups or intelligence assets; A beach house in Santa Maria del Mar (next to the Tropico Hotel); and two houses retrofitted with air-raid shelters and connected to the MINFAR command bunkers for use in war: ''Casa Punta Brava'' (Dalia's old house before meeting Fidel) and ''Casa Gallego'', near the bodyguards base at Unit 160. In the west of Cuba, he had three residences: ''Casa Americana'' (confiscated from an American businessman connected to Batista); ''Rancho la Tranquilidad'' in the locality of Mil Cumbres; and La Deseada, a hunting lodge utilized in the winter for duck hunting and fishing trips. He also had two homes in Matanzas, one in Ciego de Avila, a horse ranch ''Hacienda San Cayetano'' in Camaguey along with another house in a vacation compound for the Politburo nearby, ''Casa Guardalavaca'' in Holguin, and two residences in Santiago de Cuba (One of which is shared with Ramiro Valdes).
Castro's main vacation destination was Cayo de Piedra, a small key island formerly the site of a lighthouse, approximately a mile long and divided into two by a cyclone in the 1960s. He came upon the island by accident while reviewing the region in the aftermath of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. Instantly falling in love with the island, he ordered it closed off and had the lighthouse demolished. Osmany Cienfuegos designed the a private bungalow, guesthouse, bridge, marina, and a building for the use of the bodyguards and support staff. He arrived here from his inaccessible private marina located near the Bay of Pigs, ''La Caleta del Rosario'', which also housed another residence and guesthouse. Castro utilized two yachts, ''Aquarama I'', confiscated from a Batista Government official and later in the 1970s, the 90-foot white hull ''Aquarama II''. ''Aquarama II'', which was decorated with wood donated from Angola, had two double cabins, one for Fidel's personal use, a main sitting room, two bathrooms, a bar, a secure communications suite, and was equipped with four Osa-class missile boat engines gifted from Brezhnev allowing for top speeds of over 42 Knots. ''Aquarama II'' had two companion speedboats utilized by his escort, ''Pioniera I'' and ''Pioniera II''; one was equipped with a large cache of weapons and another was equipped with medical equipment.
Castro also had a keen interest in gastronomy and was known to wander into his kitchen to discuss cookery with his chefs. His diet was quintessentially Cuban, based on traditional pescatarian cuisine but also the additional influence from his native
Galicia. All of his food was sourced from Punto Cero or fished from his private island of Cayo Piedra, with the exception of cases of Algerian wine, Algerian Red Wine gifted initially from Houari Boumediene and continued by successive Algerian governments and Iraqi figs and fruit jams from Saddam Hussein. Castro, who typically woke up in the late morning, usually had tea or fish broth, bouillon for breakfast accompanied by milk provided from one of the cows that grazed on ''Punto Cero''; they were all bred to provide milk which suited Castro's demanding taste. His lunches were also frugal and consisted of fish or seafood soup with fresh produce. Dinner was his primary meal, consisting of grilled fish, chicken, mutton, or even ''pata negra'' ham on special occasions along with a large serving of green vegetables, but was prevented from eating beef or coffee by his dietician.
Until 1979, Castro's primary vehicle was a black ZiL limousine, first an armored convertible ZIL-111 from Khrushchev, a ZIL-114 and briefly a ZIL-4104 gifted to him by
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1964 and ...
, while his escort would accompany him in several Alfa Romeo 1750 Berlina, Alfa Romeo 1750s and 2000s. In 1979, during the Non-Aligned movement summit at Havana, Saddam Hussein gave Castro his Armored Mercedes-Benz W126, Mercedes-Benz 560 SEL which he had brought from Baghdad and became his sole transport for the rest of his life. Subsequently, Fidel ordered two mechanics from his bodyguard unit to West Germany to purchase several second-hand Mercedes-Benz 500's to replace the obsolete Alfa Romeos. Castro always travelled with at least fourteen guards and four of his aides, spread out over four vehicles; three Mercedes-Benz's and one Soviet Lada which trailed the main convoy (to keep the military presence at a minimal). Whenever he would leave Havana, a fifth Mercedes would join the procession carrying his doctor, nurse, and photographer.
Relationships
![Barbudos - Fidel Castro and Camilo Cienfuegos](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Barbudos_-_Fidel_Castro_and_Camilo_Cienfuegos.jpg)
In his personal life, Castro was known for being distant, withdrawn, and confided in very few people. His closest and most trusted friend was
Raúl Castro, his younger brother by five years and longtime armed forces minister. Although Raúl has a vastly contrasting, almost polar opposite personality to Castro, Sánchez describes Raúl as complementing Castro's personality in all the ways that he is not. Whereas Fidel was "charismatic, energetic, visionary but extremely impulsive and totally disorganized", Raúl was described as a "natural, methodical, and uncompromising organizer". Castro spoke nearly every day with Raúl, met several times a week, and was a frequent visitor at Raúl and Vilma's house; Vilma was also considered close to Castro and often appeared in public with him at national events. Besides Raúl, Castro was not close to any of his other siblings, although he did have friendly relations with his elder brother Ramón and sister Angelita. His sister Juanita Castro has been living in the United States since the early 1960s, and is a public opponent of the Cuban regime.
Outside of his immediate family, Castro's closest friend was fellow revolutionary
Celia Sánchez, who accompanied him almost everywhere during the 1960s, and controlled almost all access to the leader. Reynaldo Sánchez confirmed that Celia was indeed Castro's mistress and regarded her as the "true love of his life". Castro provided a large apartment for Celia on 11th Street near Vedado, ''El Once'' whom Fidel visited every day before returning home. Over the years, Castro added an elevator, fitness room, and a bowling alley for his and Celia's personal use. He even provided bodyguards from his own escort to Celia for her own protection.
Castro's closest male friends were the members of his immediate bodyguard unit, ''Escolta'' or the "Escort". His security was provided by Department 1 of the Personal Security Directorate of Ministry of the Interior (Cuba), MININT (Ministry of the Interior). Department 1 was for Fidel's security, Department 2 was Raúl and Vilma's, and Department 3 was for the members of the Politburo and so on. Unlike the other MININT Departments, both his and Raúl's units bypassed the normal chain of command and reported to them directly. Castro's security consisted of three concentric ''anillos'' or rings. The third ring consisted of thousands of soldiers both in MININT and MINFAR who provided support for Logistics, Air-Defense, Intelligence, etc.; The second ring consisted of eighty to one hundred soldiers who provided the outer perimeter security; And the first ring, the Elite ''Escolta'' or "The Escort", which provided his immediate security and consisted of two teams of 15 elite soldiers who worked 24-hour shifts, along with around 10 support staff.
A soldier at heart, Castro had more affinity with his escort than his civilian family. He spent most of his time under their protection and were usually his companions in his personal interests. A sports fan, he also spent much of his time trying to keep fit, undertaking regular exercise such as hunting, fly fishing, underwater fishing, scuba diving, and playing basketball. They were also his companions on special events, such as his birthday or during national holidays, which they would regularly exchange gifts and engage in one-sided discussions with Castro where he would recall his life stories. The members of the Escort Castro was closest to was the former Mayor of Havana Jose "Pepín" Naranjo who became his official aide until his death in 1995 and his own personal physician, Eugenio Selman. Outside of his escort, Castro was also close to Manuel Piñeiro, Manuel "Barbarroja" Pineiro, the head of the American Department of the Dirección de Inteligencia, DGI, Antonio Núñez Jiménez, and the Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez.
Marital history
The Cuban government has never published an official marital history of Castro, with most information coming from defectors and scarce details published in state media and pieced together over the years. In his earlier years in power, he showcased some of his family life, in particular his eldest son Fidelito in order to portray himself as a normal "family man" to the apprehensive American audience, but eventually abandoned that as he became more concerned about his personal safety. Throughout his rule, Castro never named an official "First Lady" and when the need for such a public female companion was necessary,
Celia Sánchez or Raúl's wife, Vilma Espín, would play such a role of ''la primera dama''.
Overall, Sánchez described Castro as a compulsive lover or "womanizer"; he has been officially married twice but has carried on numerous affairs, including many one-night stands. Popular with women and often recognized as a sex symbol in Cuba, Castro never had difficulty in finding love and seduction, and Sánchez denies that Castro ever engaged in any unusual or un-consensual behavior. Castro was also described as a poor father; often absent from their lives, he had little interest in the activities of his children and was more interested in his work. Raúl, who had much more stronger paternal feelings towards his family, was often the one who played the role of surrogate father to Castro's children, in particular Fidelito and Alina.
* Castro's first wife was Mirta Díaz-Balart, whom he married in October 1948. She is the only spouse of Castro acknowledged by the Cuban government. Diaz-Balart, the daughter of a powerful Cuban politician and brother of Batista's Minister of Interior, was a student at the University of Havana where she met and married Castro. She divorced him later in 1955 while he was in prison due to the attacks on the Moncada Barracks. They had one son:
**Fidel Castro Díaz-Balart, Fidel Ángel "Fidelito" Castro Díaz-Balart, born in September 1949. Fidelito grew up at various times between Havana and Miami; he later went to the Soviet Union to study Nuclear Physics. For a time, he ran Cuba's atomic-energy commission before being removed from the post by his father.
He took his own life in February 2018, over a year after his father's death.
* During his first marriage, Castro had a brief encounter with Maria Laborde, an admirer from Camaguey whom very little is known and has long been deceased. They had one son:
**Jorge Ángel Castro, born on 23 March 1949. It was long believed that his birth was in 1956, but Sánchez and another defector uncovered that he was in fact born earlier than Fidelito.
*While Castro was married to Mirta, he had an affair with Natalia Revuelta Clews, Natalia "Naty" Revuelta Clews. Widely regarded in Havana for her beauty, Natalia herself was married to Dr. Orlando Fernandez but sympathized with the aims of the Revolutionary movement. She initially joined the movement as a friend of Castro but later became his mistress and visited him while he was imprisoned on Isla de Pinos. She would give birth to his daughter:
**Alina Fernández, Alina Fernández Revuelta,
born in 1956, is Castro's only daughter. She did not know her true parentage until she was 10. Castro showed little interest in her but sent her to a boarding school in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. One of the few people willing to stand up to Castro, several defectors have described her personality as the most similar to her father. Alina became a public relations director for a State-owned fashion company and a model for Havana Club. Her father inadvertently found out about the latter job while reading ''Cuba'' magazine, coming across an advertisement showing Alina posing in a bikini on a boat with two other models; he nearly exploded with rage. Alina left Cuba in 1993, disguised as a Spanish tourist, and sought asylum in the U.S., from where she has criticized her father's policies.
*Castro's second and longest wife was with Dalia Soto Del Valle, another admirer who met Castro during a speech in Villa Clara in 1961. She was a teacher who was part of the government's literacy campaign who moved to Havana on Castro's initiative and later moved in with him at ''Punto Cero'' as his permanent family. Her relationship with Castro was kept secret until 2006, when she was photographed with an increasingly frail Castro during the Party Congress, although no other information has been released by the Cuban Government. Castro and Dalia had five sons, each of them starting with the letter A and three of them a variation of "Alexander" (in homage to Alexander the Great, his pseudonym while a guerilla fighter):
**Alexis Castro Del Valle, born in 1962. Described as a loner with few friends, he eventually got a degree in computer science but has since become a mechanic.
**Alex Castro Del Valle, born in 1963. Much more affable and outgoing, he was initially trained as an engineer as well but instead became a photographer and cameraman for ''
Granma'' and Cubavisión respectively. He later became the official photographer of his father and published several books and hosted the exhibitions ''Fidel Castro:Photografia Intimidade''.
**Alejandro Castro Del Valle, born in 1969. Considered a "computer geek", like his brothers, he also studied computer science and engineering but was passionate about the subject. Around 1990, he wrote software that allowed Russian programs to be run on Japanese ones; the product was purchased by NEC of Japan, which raised his national profile in the engineering community of Cuba and even public praise from his father.
**Antonio Castro Del Valle, born in 1971. A national youth baseball champion, he studied sports medicine in the University of Havana and became an Orthopedic surgeon. He is currently the head of the Surgery unit at the Elite Frank Pais Orthopedic Hospital, Doctor to the National Baseball team and President of the Cuban Baseball Federation.
**Angelito Castro Del Valle, born in 1974. Considered spoiled by his parents from a young age, he was long considered the "trouble child" of the family. He was passionate about cars and frequently earned the ire of his father's escort unit for disrupting the work of the mechanics. Angelito never obtained any higher education, but later became the senior executive of the Mercedes-Benz concession of Cuba.
*After the 1970s, Castro began a long relationship with Juanita Vera, a Colonel in the foreign intelligence service who joined his escort unit as his English interpreter. She often appeared in public with Castro, in particular in Oliver Stone's ''Comandante (film), Comandante'' as his translator and interpreter. Her and Castro had one son, Abel Castro Vera, born in 1983.
Castro had another daughter, Francisca Pupo (born 1953), the result of a one-night affair. Pupo and her husband now live in Miami.
[ ''CANF.org''. Cuban American National Foundation. 29 October 2003] Another son known as Ciro was also born in the early 1960s, the result of another brief fling, his existence confirmed by Celia Sánchez.
Reception and legacy
One of the most controversial political leaders of his era, Castro both inspired and dismayed people around the world during his lifetime. The London ''The Observer, Observer'' stated that he proved to be "as divisive in death as he was in life", and that the only thing that his "enemies and admirers" agreed upon was that he was "a towering figure" who "transformed a small Caribbean island into a major force in world affairs". ''The Daily Telegraph'' noted that around the world he was "either praised as a brave champion of the people, or derided as a power-mad dictator."
According to political scientists, Castro ruled a single-party authoritarian regime in Cuba. Political opposition was not permitted.
According to political scientists Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way, the Cuban regime entailed "full authoritarianism ... (like China and Saudi Arabia)", as there were "no viable channels... for opposition to contest legally for executive power." Censorship of information was extensive,
and independent journalism was repressed.
Despite its small size and limited economic weight, Castro's Cuba gained a large role in world affairs. The Castro government relied heavily on its appeals to nationalistic sentiment, in particular the widespread hostility to the U.S. government. According to Balfour, Castro's domestic popularity stemmed from the fact that he symbolised "a long-cherished hope of national liberation and social justice" for much of the population. Balfour also noted that throughout Latin America, Castro served as "a symbol of defiance against the continued economic and cultural imperialism of the United States". Similarly, Wayne Smith (diplomat), Wayne S. Smith – the former Chief of the United States Interests Section in Havana – noted that Castro's opposition to U.S. dominance and transformation of Cuba into a significant world player resulted in him receiving "warm applause" throughout the
Western Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the te ...
.
Various Western governments and human rights organizations nevertheless heavily criticized Castro and he was widely reviled in the U.S. Following Castro's death, U.S. President-elect of the United States, President-elect Donald Trump called him a "brutal dictator", while the Cuban-American politician Marco Rubio called him "an evil, murderous dictator" who turned Cuba into "an impoverished island prison". Castro publicly rejected the "dictator" label, stating that he constitutionally held less power than most head of state, heads of state and insisting that his regime allowed for greater democratic involvement in policy making than Western liberal democracy, liberal democracies. Nevertheless, critics claim that Castro wielded significant unofficial influence aside from his official duties. Quirk stated that Castro wielded "absolute power" in Cuba, albeit not in a legal or constitutional manner, while Bourne claimed that power in Cuba was "completely invested" in Castro, adding that it was very rare for "a country and a people" to have been so completely dominated by "the personality of one man". Balfour stated that Castro's "moral and political hegemony" within Cuba diminished the opportunities for democratic debate and decision making. Describing Castro as a "totalitarian dictator", Sondrol suggested that in leading "a political system largely [of] his own creation and bearing his indelible stamp", Castro's leadership style warranted comparisons with totalitarian leaders like Mao Zedong, Hideki Tojo, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, and Benito Mussolini.
![Ben Bella a la Havane - Cuba](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Ben_Bella_a_la_Havane_-_Cuba.jpg)
Noting that there were "few more polarising political figures" than Castro, Amnesty International described him as "a progressive but deeply flawed leader". In their view, he should be "applauded" for his regime's "substantial improvements" to healthcare and education, but criticised for its "ruthless suppression of freedom of expression." Human Rights Watch stated that his government constructed a "repressive machinery" which deprived Cubans of their "basic rights".
Castro defended his government's record on human rights, stating that the state was forced to limit the freedoms of individuals and imprison those involved in counter-revolutionary activities in order to protect the rights of the collective populace, such as the right to employment, education, and health care.
Historian and journalist Richard Gott considered Castro to be "one of the most extraordinary political figures of the twentieth century", commenting that he had become a "world hero in the mould" of Giuseppe Garibaldi to people throughout the developing world for his anti-imperialist efforts. Balfour stated that Castro's story had "few parallels in contemporary history", for there existed no other "Third World leader" in the second half of the twentieth century who held "such a prominent and restless part on the international stage" or remained head of state for such a long period. Bourne described Castro as "an influential world leader" who commanded "great respect" from individuals of all political ideologies across the developing world. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described Castro as a "remarkable leader" and a "larger than life leader who served his people." The European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that Castro "was a hero for many." Russian President Vladimir Putin described Castro as both "a sincere and reliable friend of Russia" and a "symbol of an era", while Chinese Communist Party General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, general secretary Xi Jinping similarly referred to him as "a close comrade and a sincere friend" to China.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed him "one of the most iconic personalities of the 20th century" and a "great friend", while South African President Jacob Zuma praised Castro for aiding black South Africans in "our struggle against apartheid".
He was awarded a List of awards and honours bestowed upon Fidel Castro, wide variety of awards and honors from foreign governments and was cited as an inspiration for foreign leaders like
Ahmed Ben Bella
Ahmed Ben Bella ( ar, أحمد بن بلّة '; 25 December 1916 – 11 April 2012) was an Algerian politician, soldier and socialist revolutionary who served as the head of government of Algeria from 27 September 1962 to 15 September 1963 ...
and Nelson Mandela, who subsequently awarded him South Africa's highest civilian award for foreigners, the Order of Good Hope. The biographer Volka Skierka stated that "he will go down in history as one of the few revolutionaries who remained true to his principles".
In Cuba
Following Castro's death, Cuba's government announced that it would be passing a law prohibiting the naming of "institutions, streets, parks or other public sites, or erecting busts, statues or other forms of tribute" in honor of the late Cuban leader in keeping with his wishes to prevent an extensive cult of personality from developing around him.
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Further reading
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External links
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Fidel Castro's speechesFidel Castro History Archiveat ''Marxists Internet Archive''
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Fidel Castro (Character)on IMDb
Fidel Castro Recordsat FBI Records: The Vault
Fidel Castro: A Life in Pictures– slideshow by ''BBC News''
Fidel Castro: From Rebel to El Presidente– timeline by ''NPR''
Fidel Castro– extended biography by ''Barcelona Centre for International Affairs''
Say Brother; 914; Invitation From CubaDate N/A, National Records and Archives Administration, American Archive of Public Broadcasting
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